The cost of maintaining application software has been rapidly escalating, and is currently estimated to comprise from 50-80% of corporate information systems department budgets. In this research we develop an estimable production frontier model of software maintenance, using a new methodology that allows the simultaneous estimation of both the production frontier and the effects of several productivity factors. Our model allows deviations on both sides of the estimated frontier to reflect the impact of both production inefficiencies and random effects such as measurement errors.

The model is then estimated using an empirical dataset of 65 software maintenance projects from a large commercial bank. The insights obtained from the estimation results are found to be quite consistent for reasonable variations in the specification of the model. Estimates of the marginal impacts of all of the included productivity factors are obtained to aid managers in improving productivity in software maintenance.

A model to evaluate variables impacting the productivity of software maintenance projects

In agile methodologies communication between programmers is very important. Some of them (e.g. XP or Crystal Clear) recommend pair programming. There are two styles of pair programming: XP-like and side-by-side (the latter comes from Crystal Clear). In the paper an experiment is described that aimed at comparison of those two styles. The subjects were 25 students of Computer Science of 4th and 5th year of study. They worked for 6 days at the university (in a controlled environment) programming web-based applications with Java, Eclipse, MySQL, and Tomcat. The results obtained indicate that side-by-side programming is a very interesting alternative to XP-like pair programming mainly due to less effort overhead (in the experiment the effort overhead for side-by-side programming was as small as 20%, while for XP it was about 50%).

/pdf/pair-programming-vs-side-by-side-programming-50oc6hg7kc.pdf

Pair programming vs. side-by-side programming

Currently available methods for selecting computer programmers are reviewed The academic achievement, in high school and in the university, of over 3000 students is reviewed and correlated with their performance in the different computer programming courses The results revealed that performance in high school and college mathematics and science courses account for up to 50 per cent of the variance in computer programming course performance The implications of these results for training and selection are discussed

Predicting performance in computer programming courses

This paper presents an experimental study into the processes that may contribute to building a better knowledge-based system. A model that defines quality to be composed of two related aspects, internal and external quality, is introduced. To test the model, 24 subjects developed a knowledge-based system for MBA course planning in an experimental setting over a 7 week period. Subjects were factored by development methodology (structured vs rapid prototyping), knowledge representation scheme used (rule-based vs hybrid) and programmer quality (naive vs experienced). The major finding is that an appropriate mix of development methodology, knowledge representation and personnel is necessary. No single development methodology or knowledge representation scheme is best, and a considerable number of interactions was observed in the experiment. Rapid prototyping combined with rule-based representation produced the best external quality in terms of functionality, but when combined with hybrid representation produced the worst. Similarly, rapid prototyping combined with hybrid representation produced the worst usability. Programmer quality had a positive effect on coding productivity, which in turn resulted in an increase in system usability. As with conventional software, increasing programmer quality can be very beneficial to both process and content. The study presented provides some evidence of the anomalies that are generated in the course of system development, and how they relate to internal quality. As might be expected, experienced programmers produced significantly fewer anomalies. A relationship was found between internal quality and usability, but not functionality.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fejis.1996.29.pdf

An experimental investigation into the process of knowledge-based systems development

Impact of team skills on software quality a comparative study of software development teams in india and united states

Existing citations of the Sackman programming research are in error. This letter clarifies the scope of the research, and the conclusions which can be properly drawn from it.

Programmer variability

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Programmer variability