Pair Programming “Potential Benefits and Threats”

Agile software methodologies are preferred overtraditional methods in a variety of industry projects.Pair programming is a key practice of ExtremeProgramming; an agile softwaredevelopmenttechnique, in which two students/ programmers/ co-workers work together at one terminal. One, thewriter, writes code while the other, the analyst,reviews each line of code as it is typed in. The twoco-workers swap roles frequently. For theITstudents who are the future IT professionals of acountry, Pair Programming may be a good methodof training, as they need to inculcate the necessarysoft skills that are essential in software developmentbesides the necessary technical background.Students need to learn how to work in a team, oneof the key aspects of sustenance in an industry. Thishelps them to develop the art of communication andinteraction. This indeed makes them progresstowards the path of making themselves better ITmanagers. Experiencing team work i.e. working intandem with team members is an essentialpreparation for professional software development.In this process of learning the Mentor plays a vitalrole. Mentor doesn’t only guide the studentstowards the completion of theproject or assignmentbut also helps the students in their mentalconditioning. The objective of this paper is to give acomparative study of a few authors, where thechallenges faced by the students and how PairProgramming or collaborative learning canbenefitand pose threats to students are explored.