Pair Programming: Addressing Key Process Areas of the People-CMM

Abstract

It has been long recognized that the quality of the people employed by a software organization is a major determinant of the quality of its products. Acknowledging the pivotal role played by people in software development, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) devised the People — Capability Maturity Model. Like its software counterpart, the People CMM (P-CMM) defines five levels of maturity. An organization can achieve a level by institutionalizing the “best practices” for that level. The best practices are grouped together as Key Process Areas (KPAs). Pair programming is a practice in which two programmers work together at one computer on a single module of code - designing, coding and testing it together. Evidence indicates that pair programming improves teamwork, communication and knowledge levels - all KPAs of the P-CMM. This paper establishes a link between pair programming and the KPAs defined in the P-CMM. Specifically, the paper provides an outline on the advantages and effects of adopting pair programming if an organization wants to achieve a higher P-CMM level.