Empirical study of how personality, team processes and task characteristics relate to satisfaction and software quality

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the relationships between personality, team processes, task characteristics, product quality and satisfaction in software development teams. The data analysed here were gathered from a sample of 35 teams of students (105 participants) from a Spanish university. These teams applied an adaptation of an agile methodology, eXtreme Programming (XP), to develop the same software product.

We found that the teams with the highest job satisfaction are precisely the ones whose members score highest for the personality factors agreeableness and conscientiousness. The satisfaction levels are also higher when the members can decide how to develop and organize their work. On the other hand, the level of satisfaction and cohesion drops the more conflict there is between the team members. Finally, the teams exhibit a significant positive correlation between the personality factor extroversion and software product quality.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.9 Management
          Subjects: Programming teams

General Terms:
Experimentation, Management

Keywords:
personality factors, satisfaction, software quality, task characteristics, team processes