In a recent article in "Communications of the ACM" (March 1998, Vol. 41) JohnNosek writes about "The Case for Collaborative Programming".  Let me give you some excerpts.  (Reproduced by permission.)  The article starts off with:

	 :	"Team programming usually means coordinating efforts of individual programmers who divide up the programming tasks for a large, complex system.  Collaborative programming is used here to mean two programmers working jointly on the same algorithm and code.  Previous research indicates that student programmers working collaboratively outperformed individual programmers.  A follow-up field experiment was conducted using experienced programmers who worked on a challenging problem important to their organization, in their own environments, and with their own equipment.  To the surprise of the managers and participants, all the teams outperformed the individual programmers, enjoyed the problem-solving process more, and had greater confidence in their solutions."

After describing the experiment and the results, in the discussion JohnNosek says:

	 :	"The majority of programmers were somewhat skeptical of the value of collaboration in working on the same algorithm/program module and thought that the process would not be enjoyable.  However, as the results indicate, and supported by their comments, collaboration did improve their performance and they enjoyed their efforts.  One programming pair experienced a "qualitative jump" as compared to the other groups and individuals in the experiment.  To the amazement of the manager, [...] the script written by this programming team was twice as efficient as previously purchased scripts."

Finally,

	 :	"the results raise intriguing questions.  Can two average or less-experienced workers collaborate to perform tasks that may be too challenging for each one alone?  Can a company bring a product to market substantially earlier by using collaborative programming?  Can collaborative programming using worldwide commodity programming resources offer a competitive edge?"

So there it is: quantitative support for PairProgramming.

-- MarnixKlooster

The full article is available at: http://www.acm.org/pubs/articles/journals/cacm/1998-41-3/p105-nosek/p105-nosek.pdf

-- RobMayoff

...which is apparently only available to ACM members. :-( -- MarnixKlooster

I think you just need to register at http://www.acm.org/dl/reg/ - which you can do without being an ACM member.  -- RobMayoff

''OK, I've tried that, but it still says it's "pay per view".  Any more hints?'' -- FrankCarver

See AcmPortal for a tale of woe concerning the ACM.
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CategoryExtremeProgramming