The Social Dynamics of Pair Programming

Abstract

This paper presents data from a four month ethnographic study of professional pair programmers from two software development teams. Contrary to the current conception of pair programmers, the pairs in this study did not hew to the separate roles of "driver" and "navigator". Instead, the observed programmers moved together through different phases of the task, considering and discussing issues at the same strategic "range " or level of abstraction and in largely the same role. This form of interaction was reinforced by frequent switches in keyboard control during pairing and the use of dual keyboards. The distribution of expertise among the members of a pair had a strong influence on the tenor of pair programming interaction. Keyboard control had a consistent secondary effect on decisionmaking within the pair. These findings have implications for software development managers and practitioners as well as for the design of software development tools.