Pair Programming Productivity — Student Study

Pair programming productivity seems to be comparable with two people working independently — pairs discuss the software before development, probably have fewer false starts and less rework, and spend less time repairing bugs found during testing

Explanation

Using student volunteers, Williams and collaborators (Cockburn and Williams, 2001; Williams et al., 2000) found that productivity with pair programming seems to be comparable with that of two people working independently. The reasons suggested are that pairs discuss the software before development — probably having fewer false starts and less rework — and the number of errors avoided by informal inspection means less time is spent repairing bugs during testing.