Chapter 23. Student Perceptions of the Suitability of Extreme and Pair Programming

Dean Sanders

Copyright © 2003, Dean Sanders. All rights reserved.

Senior students were asked to write opinion papers about the use of Extreme Programming (XP) in a software engineering class and the use of pair programming in an introductory programming course. Most of the students opposed using XP in the software engineering class but favored the use of pair programming in an introductory programming course. A pilot study uncovered some reservations about using pair programming early in a computer science curriculum. The students' comments are insightful and should be considered before introducing either of these practices into the curriculum.