Evaluating Personality Traits of Engineering Teams Using Big-Five Assessment Model

2019 6th IEEE International Conference on Engineering Technologies and Applied Sciences (ICETAS)
Building Most Effective Requirements Engineering
Teams by Evaluating Their Personality Traits
Using Big-Five Assessment Model
Abstract – The requirement engineering team plays a vital role
in alignment of software development in accordance with
intended user requirements. The requirements engineering is
considered as the most social and interactive process within the
software development life cycle. The strong social and
collaborative nature of RE process highlights and justifies its
primary dependence on personality attributes/traits of its
participants like requirements analysts and product
stakeholders. The induction of right persons with right
personality traits for RE teams greatly affects their work
performance and consequently contributes positively in the
improvement of whole software development process. This
article presents a method to build most effective RE teams by
considering their personality traits at the time of their
induction. The job descriptions and soft skills announced by
software industry for hiring requirements engineers have been
analyzed critically and accordingly the most suitable
personality traits have been predicted using a systematic
method. The devised method initially maps different soft skills
required to perform different tasks during RE phase and then
re-maps desired soft skills with personality traits of software
engineers. The big-five (also known as five-factor) personality
assessment model has traditionally been used to identify the
most suitable personalities for RE teamwork due to its wide
acceptance in the software engineering domain. The obtained
results show that the personality traits of openness, extraversion
and conscientiousness are the most suitable personality traits
for requirements engineering team members to perform RE
tasks. These results are very much aligned with already
established findings in domain of personality assessment of
software engineering roles, which advocates the accuracy of
devised method.
Keywords – Requirements Engineering Process, Requirements
Engineering Teams Personality, Requirements Engineer
Personality, Software Engineers Personality, Big-Five
Personality Attributes/Traits
I. INTRODUCTION
The requirements engineering process is deliberated the
foremost important activity in software development process
whose main essence is to identify the true needs and
constraints of stakeholders of the intended product. The
requirements engineering is a collaborative and analytical
process that comprises of different tasks like collecting,
discovering, extracting and defining the requirements [1].
The requirements engineering process is carried-out to
determine the user requirements, business requirements,
non-functional requirements, functional requirements and
system constraints. The requirements engineering process is
perhaps the most critical, challenging, communication-
intensive and error-prone aspect of the whole software
development life cycle activity [2]. Therefore, different
techniques have been developed to successfully accomplish
this process and gather the requirements of product from its
stakeholders. In broader spectrum, the process of
requirements engineering is sub-divided into two main areas
of works including requirements development and
requirements management. The process of requirements
development is carried-out before the establishment of
requirements baseline document while the process of
requirements management is carried-out after the
establishment of requirements baseline document [1, 2]. The
different activities performed during requirements
development can be categorized into four broad categories
including (1) elicitation, (2) analysis, (3) specification, (4)
verification and validation as is shown in figure-1. The
different tasks performed during requirements management
may include those activities that are concerned with the
control and monitoring of requirements change management
performed after the establishment of requirements baseline
document.
The Requirements Elicitation Process is deliberated as the
first and foremost important activity performed during the
whole process of requirements engineering (RE) as is shown
in figure-1. In this phase of requirements elicitation, the
development teams and product users go through multiple
interactive scenarios and cross talk sessions to formalize the
features of intended product [3]. Hence, the requirements
elicitation process is purely a human-centered task, which
involves a huge amount of people interactions [4].
M. Aqeel Iqbal
Department of CS, Kulliyah of ICT
International Islamic University, Malaysia
[e-mail]
Ammar, F. A.
Department of CS, Kulliyah of ICT
International Islamic University, Malaysia
[e-mail]
Adel Rashed Aldaihani
Department of IS, Kulliyah of ICT
International Islamic University, Malaysia
[e-mail]
Tehmina Karamat Ullah Khan
Department of IS, Kulliyah of ICT
International Islamic University, Malaysia
[e-mail]
Asadullah Shah
Department of IS, Kulliyah of ICT
International Islamic University, Malaysia
[e-mail]
978-1-7281-4082-7 /19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
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The Requirements Analysis is the second task performed
during the RE process as is shown in figure-1. The main
objective of this stage is to assess the elicited requirements
and align them according to quality attributes defined by
standardizing organizations for improving inherited
inconsistencies, ambiguities, conflicts, redundancies,
conciseness, measurability and un-understandabilities [3]. In
this stage the requirements analyst repeatedly communicates
with product champions and product user to resolve the
detected issues and abnormalities in elicited requirements.
Requirements
Management
Figure-1: Requirements Engineering Process [1]
The Requirements Specification is the third task performed
during the RE process as is shown in figure-1. The different
sub-tasks performed during this stage may include detailing,
structuring and documenting the agreed characteristics of
the product [3]. During this stage, a formal specification
document known as software requirements specifications
(SRS) is prepared for the intended product before starting its
formal design activity. This document contains a substantial
information about the specifications agreed between user
and developer that may include non-functional
requirements, functional requirements and intended system
design constraints.
The Requirements Verification and Validation is the fourth
task performed during the RE process as is shown in figure-
1. During this process, the specified requirements of the
product are inspected to trace any laps or bugs in their
descriptions [3]. The different possible laps of requirements
that are reviewed may include requirements inconsistency,
ambiguity, redundancy, completeness, adequacy,
measurability, relevance, feasibility, comprehensibility,
modifiability, understandability, document structuring and
traceability.
The Requirements Management is performed after the
establishment of baseline of requirements specifications of
the product and is primarily concerned with all those
activities that are carried-out to maintain the integrity and
accuracy of the product requirements as is shown in figure-
1. There are four main activities being performed during the
process of requirements management including (1) the
requirements change management, (2) the requirements
version management, (3) the requirements status
management and (4) the requirements traceability [3]. These
four main activities may have many other sub-activities
being performed during each of these phases of
requirements management.
II. HUMAN FACTOR IN REQUIREMENTS
ENGINEERING
The human factor in RE (requirements engineering) plays a
foundry role to conceptualize the product requirements [5].
The requirements engineering process is full of cross-
sectional conversations among requirements analyst and
other stakeholders for the conceptualization of intended
product using formal and informal communication
mechanisms. Therefore, the requirements engineering
process is essentially a human-centered activity whose
success is characteristically dependent on the working
aptitude, collaborative environment and behavioral
capabilities of its involved participants. Hence the
requirements engineering process is affected by the social,
cultural and interpersonal aspects of its contributors [5]. The
effective requirements engineering leads to the finalization
of high-quality specifications which results in the
development of the right product by using a right
development process. The contextual analysis of
requirements engineering process reveals that composition
of most appropriate RE team plays a vigorous role in
enhancing the effectiveness of requirements engineering
process and its outcomes. Consequently, the usefulness of
requirements engineering practice is primarily dependent on
the characteristics of requirements engineering team and
team member’s personalities [6]. The characteristics of
collectively working teams are generally linked with team
member’s personality traits. Hence, there is a vigorous
impact of team member’s personality traits on the usefulness
of RE task.
Personality Traits have a significant role on individual’s
working environment and his/her potential working
capacity. The personality traits directly affect to individual’s
perception about their working environment and the way of
interaction with others in a social group. Hence, the
personality composition is a key indicator to determine the
behavioral successfulness of an individual in his social
circle and working group. The personality traits generally
refer to the characteristics of an individual that contribute in
his/her personal behaviors. The researchers have identified
different classification models of human personality traits
that reflect their abilities to interact with others and focus on
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