| Business managers who look for ways to cut costs face difficult questions about the efficiency and effectiveness of software engineering practices that are used to complete projects on time, on specification, and within budget (Johnson, 1995 Lindstrom & Jeffries, 2004). Theoretical models such as the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) have linked intention and attitude to predictable behavior. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as proposed by Davis (1985, 1989) furthers the theory of predicting behavior to the acceptance of technology practices through the understanding of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. These theories are applied to the practices of paired and individual programming. The research in this study surveys the attitudes of software development managers towards the practices of paired and individual programming and applies a generally accepted technology acceptance model to the collected data as a theoretical framework to indicate the acceptance and usage of such a practice in their software engineering environments. The findings do not support the position that the paired programming practice is used more than the individual programming practice. The data also indicates that while a software development managers' type of business does not affect usage of the paired or individual programming practice, the manager's years of experience does. This study suggests follow-on research and possible experimentation in the future use of paired programming as a viable, cost effective practice for software engineering. |
