The Collaborative Software Process

Abstract

Anecdotal and qualitative evidence from industry indicates that two programmers working side-by-side at one computer, collaborating on the same design, algorithm, code, or test, perform substantially better than the two working alone. Statistical evidence has shown that programmers perform better when following a defined, repeatable process such as the Personal Software Process (PSP). Bringing these two ideas together, the Collaborative Software Process (CSP) has been developed. The CSP is a defined, repeatable process for two programmers working collaboratively.  The CSP is an extension of the PSP, and it relies upon the foundation of the PSP. This talk will present empirical evidence that demonstrates that software developers working collaboratively using the CSP produce products with higher quality more quickly than those working individually using the PSP.

An experiment was run in 1999 with approximately 40 senior Computer Science students at the University of Utah. All students learned both the CSP and the PSP. Two-thirds of the students worked in two-person collaborative teams using the CSP to develop their programming assignments. The other students worked independently using the PSP to develop the same assignments. The productivity, cycle time, and quality of the two groups have been compared. Empirical results point in favor of the collaborative teams using the CSP.

Laurie Williams is a doctoral student and instructor at the University of Utah. She received a BS in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA from Duke University. Laurie worked at IBM in Raleigh, North Carolina for nine years. Her research interests are in software engineering, software process and collaborative programming.

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