Economics of Pair Programming Revisited

This study aimed to answer two research questions. First, is pair programming more cost effective than solo programming in all situations? Second, in what situations is pair programming more cost effective than solo programming? We adopted and extended economic models specified by prior researchers. We examined two different scenarios and conducted simulations where we varied across a wide range of possible values. A couple of conclusions were drawn from the study. First, across the ranges of parameters studied, pair programming is more economically feasible in only a limited number of instances. Second, in order to achieve the economic benefit, pair programming either needs to have advantages in all of three areas (speed, defect, defect removing) or have substantial advantages in two areas if one area is roughly equivalent to solo programming. To address the second research questions, we identified specific parameter ranges for situations where a) pair programming is more economical, b) solo programming is more economical, and c) the two programming methods are equivalent.