This project determines what skills and knowledge a student must have to face successfully an introductory programming course. This is an exploratory and qualitative study based on analysis of the current proposals for programming courses, and on interviews and focus groups with students and professors of this courses. The analysis is performed using Atlas Ti. Colombia is defined as the context for the research. The competencies identified are related with reading comprehension skills, especially the ability to perform text analysis. According to the information found, this skill reflects the ability of students to understand a problem. This greatly facilitates the possibility of writing a solution algorithm. A second ability has to do with to logical thinking. This second ability is justified because allows break a problem into simpler ones. Other abilities and knowledge are highlighted in the final results.