Solving Practical Puzzles: A Qualitative Look at Pair Programming Challenges

Written by pairprogramming | Published 2025/08/15
Tech Story Tags: pair-programming | pair-programming-skill | pair-programming-expertise | grounded-theory-methodology | optimizing-pair-programming | communication-in-programming | coding-teamwork | agile-practices

TLDRThe study's focus is on real-world, practical puzzles in pair programming. It uses a deficit-oriented perspective to analyze what causes frustration and unproductive behavior in industrial settings.via the TL;DR App

Table of Links

Abstract and I. Introduction

II. Related Work

A. On the Existence of Pair Programming Skill

B. On the Elements of Pair Programming Skill

III. Research Method

A. Research Goal and Data Collection

B. Qualitative Research Approach

C. Our Notions of ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’

IV. Results

A. Two Elements of Pair Programming Skill

B. Anti-Pattern: Getting Lost in the Weeds

C. Anti-Pattern: Losing the Partner

D. Anti-Pattern: Drowning the Partner

E. Doing the Right Thing and F. Further Elements of Pair Programming Skill

V. Discussion

VI. Summary and Future Work

VII. Data Availability and References

C. Our Notions of ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’

We only assess exhibited PP skill, not the developers’ potential and not behavior changes over a longer time. This is also a purely qualitative study. We use a deficit-oriented perspective, i.e., we analyze episodes of pairs running into ‘trouble’, e.g., (a) one or both pair members getting frustrated because they do not understand what their partner says or does, or (b) the pair doing things that help neither with their actual task nor with some overarching goal such as getting familiar with the code base.

Authors:

(1) Franz Zieris, Institut fur Informatik, Freie Universitat, Berlin Berlin, Germany ([email protected]);

(2) Lutz Prechelt, Institut fur Informatik. Freie Universitat Berlin, Berlin, Germany ([email protected]).


This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY 4.0 DEED license.


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Published by HackerNoon on 2025/08/15