Managing Power Gaps as an Element of Pair Programming Skill: A Grounded Theory
For software developers and teams using pair programming, this provides a new understanding of a subtle factor that can undermine collaboration, offering practical guidance to improve pair programming skill.
The study identifies that a 'Power Gap' between pair programming partners can cause dysfunctional sessions even when mutual understanding (Togetherness) is high. It explains how Power Gaps arise from knowledge gaps and hierarchical behavior, leading to defensive and disengaging behaviors, and suggests equalizing behavior to mitigate them.
Background: In pair programming, Togetherness (the partners understand each other's mental state well) is a main success factor. Maintaining high Togetherness is an element of pair programming skill. Some sessions appear to go badly although Togetherness appears good. Objective: Understand under what circumstances this is possible. Method: Grounded Theory Methodology based on 21 recorded pair programming sessions with 22 developers from 5 German software companies and 6 interviews with different developers from 4 other German companies. Results: We explain how a Power Gap can make a session dysfunctional despite the presence of high Togetherness, how it comes into existence due to a Knowledge Gap and Hierarchical Behavior, why its consequences (Defensive Behavior and Disengaging Behavior) are problematic, and how it can be reduced or prevented by Equalizing Behavior. Conclusions: Pair programming practitioners can improve their pair programming skill by unlearning problematic behaviors related to Power Gaps and by learning to recognize Power Gaps and apply Equalizing Behavior.