An initial exploration of the relationship between pair programming and Brooks' law

Through his law, "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later,'' Brooks asserts that the assimilation, training, and intercommunication costs of adding new team members outweigh the associated team productivity gain in the short term. Anecdotes suggest that adding manpower to a late project yields productivity gains to the team more quickly if the team employs the pair programming technique when compared to teams where new team members work alone. We utilize a system dynamics model which demonstrates support of these observations. Parameter values for the model were obtained via a small-scale, nonprobabilistic, convenience survey. Our initial findings suggest that managers should incorporate the pair programming practice when growing their team.