Breaking the communication barrier: guidelines to aid communication within pair programming

Abstract

Pair programming is a software development technique with many cited benefits in learning and teaching. However, it is reported that novice programmers find several barriers to pairing up, typically due to the added communication that is required of this approach. This paper will present a literature review discussing the issue of communication, and through a series of observations with industry-based pairs, will derive a set of guidelines which aim to help novice pairs experience better communication within their pairs. An evaluation of the guidelines with undergraduate students is then reported, showing that exposure to these guidelines improved the self-perceived communication experience of novice pairs.

Keywords:

• pair programming
• communication
• guidelines
• evaluation

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Professor John Richards for insightful discussions and support with this work. Thanks to the pairwith.us team, the pairs at C1 and C2, and to all the students at the University of Dundee’s School of Computing who agreed to participate in the various studies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Code.org video on pair programming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgkahOzFH2Q

2. The APE tool was created by Heron and Belford (see http://monkeys.imaginary-realities.com) and used with permission.

3. A copy of this video is available at the following URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONnYCT_LJio