Goals and Performance in Computer Programming

Abstract

In all studies of human performance, the experimenter must be certain that the subject is performing the task that the experimenter believes he has set; otherwise results become uninterpretable. Early studies of computer programming have shown such wide variations in individual performance that one might suspect that subjects differed in their interpretation of the task. Experiments are reported which show how programming performance can be strongly influenced by slight differences in performing objectives. Conclusions are drawn from these results regarding both future experimentation and management practices in computer programming.