Pair programming is a programming technique in which two
programmers use one computer to work together on the same task.
There is an ongoing debate over the value of pair programming in
software development. The current body of knowledge in this area
is scattered and unorganized. Review shows that most of the
results have been obtained from experimental studies in university
settings. Few, if any, empirical studies exist, where pair
programming has been systematically under scrutiny in real
software development projects. Thus, its proposed benefits remain
currently without solid empirical evidence. This paper reports
results from four software development projects where the impact
of pair programming on software product quality was studied. Our
empirical findings appear to offer contrasting results regarding
some of the claimed benefits of pair programming. They indicate
that pair programming may not necessarily provide as extensive
quality benefits as suggested in literature, and on the other hand,
does not result in consistently superior productivity when
compared to solo programming.