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Exploring the Efficacy of Distributed Pair Programming

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Extreme Programming and Agile Methods — XP/Agile Universe 2002 (XP/Agile Universe 2002)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2418))

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Abstract

Pair programming is one of the twelve practices of Extreme Programming (XP). Pair programming is usually performed by programmers that are collocated — working in front of the same monitor. But the inevitability of distributed development of software gives rise to important questions: How effective is pair programming if the pairs are not physically next to each other? What if the programmers are geographically distributed? An experiment was conducted at North Carolina State University to compare different working arrangements of student teams developing object-oriented software. Teams were both collocated and in distributed environments; some teams practiced pair programming while others did not. In particular, we compared the software developed by virtual teams using distributed pair programming against collocated teams using pair programming and against virtual teams that did not employ distributed pair programming. The results of the experiment indicate that it is feasible to develop software using distributed pair programming, and that the resulting software is comparable to software developed in collocated or virtual teams (without pair programming) in productivity and quality.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Computer Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695

    Prashant Baheti

  2. Dept. of Computer Science, Dept. of ECE, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695

    Edward Gehringer

  3. Dept. of Computer Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599

    David Stotts

Authors
  1. Prashant Baheti
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  2. Edward Gehringer
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  3. David Stotts
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. 4681 Brockham Way, Sterling Heights, MI, 48310, USA

    Don Wells

  2. Department of Computer Science, North Carolina State University, 1010 Main Campus Road, 407 EGRC, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Laurie Williams

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© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Baheti, P., Gehringer, E., Stotts, D. (2002). Exploring the Efficacy of Distributed Pair Programming. In: Wells, D., Williams, L. (eds) Extreme Programming and Agile Methods — XP/Agile Universe 2002. XP/Agile Universe 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2418. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45672-4_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45672-4_20

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-44024-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45672-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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