Research Interests when recording (Distributed) Pair Programmers

Who we are

We are the Software Engineering research group at Freie Universität Berlin.

Our research is concerned with reducing the gap between the State of the Art and the average State of the Practice in all areas of software engineering.

Practical goals of observing (distributed) pair programmers

We are particularly interested in the agile methods and within we want to

• understand what happens during the pair programming process, in terms of e.g. knowledge transfer and decision-making and
  • (research area of Stephan Salinger and Franz Zieris)
• describe the practicality of distributed pair programming, meaning identifying distribution-specific phenomena during real-time collaboration of distributed developers and understand their impact on the process.
  • (research area of Julia Schenk)

To tackle these questions we need to study practitioners doing (distributed) pair programming.

What we are interested in

Our research approach is based on the "Grounded Theory Methodology", which is a qualitative data analysis approach where the phenomena seen in the data are conceptualized.

Therefore we are only interested in abstract process phenomena. The information relevant for us is therefore

• independent of specific individuals as well as
• detached from product or code details.

Data Privacy

• Data is only used inside our research group and it is saved in a secure space.
• We normally agree a non-disclosure agreement with each company where we make recordings.
• In our publications we only use abstract, anonymized data and do not show any product details.

How we record

For our recordings there is no need for us to be on-site. Instead, we utilize Adobe Connect web meetings:

1. each participant is invited into a separate Adobe Connect web meeting
2. within the meeting each participant shares his screen, audio, and webcam video with us and
3. we locally record this on a dedicated recording machine at the university.

Infrastructure Requirements:

• Webcam and Microphone
• Audio connection (e.g. Skype) with programming mate (when doing distributed pair programming)
• In the first instance the Adobe Connect web browser plugin needs to be installed

What is in it for you

If you are interested in, we offer:

• A review / reflection meeting shortly after the recorded programming session, usually on the next day after a quick overnight analysis.
  • All of the developers recorded so far found this discussion quite informative and sometimes even enlightening.

Additionally, in case you are planning to do distributed pair programming:

• Support with installing and setting up Saros.
• Process support for introducing and maintaining distributed pair programming with Saros.