Is external code quality correlated with programming experience or feelgood factor?

Abstract

This paper is inspired by an article by Müller and Padberg who study the feelgood factor and programming experience, as candidate drivers for the pair programming performance. We not only reveal a possible threat to validity of empirical results presented by Müller and Padberg but also perform an independent research. Our objective is to provide empirical evidence whether external code quality is correlated with the feelgood factor, or with programming experience. Our empirical study is based on a controlled experiment with MSc students. It appeared that the external code quality is correlated with the feelgood factor, and programming experience, in the case of pairs using a classic (test-last) testing approach. The generalization of the results is limited due to the fact that MSc students participated in the study. The research revealed that both the feelgood factor and programming experience may be the external code quality drivers. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.