An empirical study on the impact of IDE tool support in pair and solo programming

TL;DR

This study empirically examines how IDE tool support influences quality and cost in pair and solo programming, revealing that IDE use can increase defect rates for simple tasks but reduces defects on complex ones, with similar effects on solo and pair work.

Contribution

It provides the first controlled experiment analyzing the impact of IDE support on defect rates and time in both pair and solo programming under traditional models.

Findings

IDE use increases defect rates for simple tasks

Defect rates decrease on complex tasks regardless of IDE support

Programming complexity significantly affects completion time

Abstract

Agile software development has been widespread adopted. One well-known agile approach is eXtreme Programming (XP) where pair programming (PP) is a relevant practice. Although various aspects of PP have been studied, we have not found, under a traditional model of PP, studies that examine the impact of using an IDE tool support. In an attempt to obtain a better understanding of the impact of using an IDE, we present the results of a controlled experiment that expose the influence on quality, measured as the number of defects injected per hour, and cost, measured as the time necessary to complete programming assignments, of pair and solo programming with and without the use of an IDE. For quality, our findings suggest that the use of an IDE results in significantly higher defect injection rates (for both pairs and solos) when the programming assignment is not very complicated. Nevertheless, defect injection rates seem to decrease when pairs work on more complicated programming assignments irrespective of the tool support used. For cost, the programming assignment significantly affects the time necessary to complete the assignment. Finally, both aspects (quality and cost) are affected in a similar manner when either pair or solo programming is used.