An Exploration of Individual Personality Types in Software Development

Abstract

Previous research - using conventional psychometric questionnaires - has highlighted the importance of aligning compatible personality types in software development teams. However, there does not exist a dedicated, robust questionnaire instrument for revealing the pertinent personality types for software development practitioners. This study analyzes the validity and reliability of a 70-item (context dependent) personality-profiling questionnaire particularly developed to assess personality types of software practitioners. A systematic process of validation, using an iterative approach to questionnaire development, was employed. The questions were developed both with a qualitative analysis of interview data, and based on the opinions of expert reviewers who revised the items through a set of examination. To investigate how stable the questions and reproducible the results, we measured test-retest reliability of the instrument, yielding satisfactory results. The present study provided evidence for the construct validity of the instrument. Ultimately, an initial comparison of the results delivered by the instrument demonstrated positive correlations with the findings acquired with well-known personality assessment instrument, i.e. the big five personality questionnaire.