Hybrid pair programming in distributed software development

Pair programming exhibits direct communication in the same place, time, and context. However, applying this programming in distributed software development is difficult because of the limited interaction, space, and time between developers. Distributed software development is a way to develop software remotely with separate team members. This paper aims to understand the key difficulty of pair programming in Distributed Software Development. In this study, researchers constructed an experiment to understand the difficulty of pair programming in distributed software development. The experiment compared individual programming, pair programming, and combining the two. The experiment result was then used to propose a hybrid pair programming method. This study showed that hybrid pair programming supplied better productivity than personal programming (55% better) and pair programming (43% better). Hybrid pair programming can improve coordination, scheduling, and technical issues, increasing individual programming productivity.