The relationship of personality models and development tasks in software engineering

Abstract

Understanding the personality of software developers has been an ongoing topic in software engineering research. Software engineering researchers applied different theoretical models to understand software developers' personalities to better predict software developers' performance, orchestrate more effective and motivated teams, and identify the person that fits a certain job best. However, empirical results were found as contradicting, challenging validity, and missing guidance for IT personnel selection. In this research, we explore the current body of knowledge on software developers' personalities by conducting a structured literature review. We provide an overview of the applied psychological models, research designs, contexts, and results. We discuss our findings and suggest promising avenues for further research on software engineering task characteristics and the impact of personality-task fit on software development performance.