Abstract
Developing working software is a key goal of software development. Beyond software processes, following traditional or agile approaches, coding strategies, i.e., solo and pair programming, are important aspects for constructing high quality software code. In addition developer experience has a critical impact on coding efficiency and code quality. Pair programming aims at increasing coding efficiency, code quality, and supports learning of development team members. Several controlled experiments have been conducted to investigate benefits of different development strategies, learning effects, and the impact on code quality in academia and industry. Nevertheless, reported study limitations and various results in different contexts require more studies to fully understand the effects of experience and programming strategies. Coding contests can be promising approaches to (a) involve different participant groups, e.g., junior and senior programmers and professionals, and (b) can represent a well-defined foundation for planning and executing large-scale empirical studies. In this paper we present coding contests as a promising strategy for conducting empirical studies with heterogeneous groups of participants and report on a set of findings from past coding contests. Main results are (a) that the concept of coding contests is a promising way for supporting empirical research and (b) the results partly confirm previous studies that report on the benefits of pair programming and development experience.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Amraii, S.A.: Observations on teamwork strategies in the ACM international collegiate programming contest. Magazine Crossroads 14(1) (2007)
Arisholm, E., Gallis, H., Dyba, T., Sjoberg, D.I.K.: Evaluating Pair Programming with Respect to System Complexity and Programmer Expertise. IEEE TSEÂ 33(2) (2007)
Beck, K.: Test Driven Development by Example. Addison-Wesley Longman (2002)
Dyba, T., Arisholm, E., Sjoberg, D.I.K., Hannay, J.E., Shull, F.: Are two heads better than one? On the Effectiveness of Pair Programming. IEEE Software 24(6) (2007)
Cockburn A., Williams L.: The costs and the benefits of pair programming. In: XP
Hulkko, H., Abrahamsson, P.: A Multiple Case Study on the Impact of Pair Programming on Product Quality. In: Proceedings of ICSE, pp. 495–504 (2005)
Juristo, N., Moreno, A.M.: Basics in Software Engineering Experimentation. Springer (2010)
McDowell, C., Werner, L., Bullock, H., Fernald, J.: The Effects of Pair Programming on Performance in an introductory programming course. In: Proc. of the 33rd SIGCSE Techn. Symp. on Computer Science Education, pp. 38–42 (2002)
Müller, M.: Two controlled experiments concerning the comparison of pair programming to peer reviews. Journal of Systems and Software 78, 166–179 (2005)
Nawrocki, K., Wojciechowski, A.: Experimental Evaluation of Pair Programming. In: Proc. of the 12th European Software Control and Metrics Conf., pp. 269–276 (2001)
Padberg, F., Müller, M.: Analyzing the Cost and Benefit of Pair Programming. In: Proc. of the Int. Symposium on Software Metrics, pp. 166–177 (2003)
Parrish, A., Smith, R., Hale, D., Hale, J.: A field study of developer pairs: Productivity impacts and implications. IEEE Software 21(2), 76–79 (2004)
Phongpaibul, M., Boehm, B.: An empirical comparison between pair development and software inspection in Thailand. In: Proc. of ISESE, pp. 85–94 (2006)
Sommerville, I.: Software Engineering, 9th edn. Addison-Wesley Longman (2010)
Williams, L., Kessler, R.R., Cunningham, W., Jeffries, R.: Strengthening the case for pair programming. IEEE Software, 19–25 (2000)
Williams, L., McDowell, C., Nagappan, N., Fernald, J., Werner, L.: Building Pair Programming Knowledge through a Family of Experiments. In: Proc. of ISESE (2003)
Winkler, D., Varvaroi, R., Goluch, G., Biffl, S.: An Empirical Study On Integrating Analytical Quality Assurance Into Pair Programming. Short Paper, ISESE (2006)
Wohlin, C., Runeson, P., Höst, M., Ohlsson, M.C., Regnell, B., Wesslen, A.: Experimentation in Software Engineering. Springer (2012)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Winkler, D., Kitzler, M., Steindl, C., Biffl, S. (2013). Investigating the Impact of Experience and Solo/Pair Programming on Coding Efficiency: Results and Experiences from Coding Contests. In: Baumeister, H., Weber, B. (eds) Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming. XP 2013. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 149. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38314-4_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38314-4_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-38313-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-38314-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)