IEEE ICETAS 2019: Building Effective Requirements Engineering Teams

This report, presented at the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering Technologies and Applied Sciences (ICETAS), investigates the crucial role of personality traits in building high-performing Requirements Engineering (RE) teams. The study employs the Big-Five (Five-Factor) personality assessment model to identify the most suitable personality profiles for RE team members, considering job descriptions and soft skills demanded by the software industry. The research maps required soft skills to specific personality traits, concluding that openness, extraversion, and conscientiousness are the most beneficial traits for RE tasks. The findings align with existing research in software engineering, emphasizing the importance of human factors in the RE process and its impact on overall software development success. The report highlights the collaborative and communication-intensive nature of RE, emphasizing the need for analysts and stakeholders with specific personality attributes to enhance team effectiveness and product quality.

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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their individual tasks [7]. The most prominent and trusted
personality classification model include big-five model
(BFM) also known as five-factor model (FFM). The five-
factor model remained in use by software engineering
researchers to analyze the role of personality traits on the
different activities of software development process [6]. The
Big-Five Model includes five super personality traits of
openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness
and neuroticism (it is sometimes referred as OCEAN) as is
shown in figure-2. The given figure also details the main
characteristics of each of these personality traits by
explaining a wide scale of attributes values ranging from
“High” score to “Low” score. The figure also shows the
details of each personality trait by showing its key facets.
Figure-2: Big-Five Personality Traits [8]
The above figure shows that the people with openness trait
are artistic and creative in their thoughts and works. These
people always try to thing out-of-box and experiences some
unusual actions. Such kind of people are very creative and
innovative for any kind of organizations. The research and
development organizations can benefit from such
personalities. The people with conscientiousness traits are
very firm and organized personalities who are enriched with
hard working habits. Such people are very suitable for any
kind of office work that carries a well-defined working
patterns and procedures. The people with extroversion traits
are capable of energetically collaborate and interact with
other persons. Such personalities acquire energy from out
world when they come across social circles. The people are
very useful for those tasks where human interaction is
frequent like human resource management jobs etc. The
people with agreeableness traits are very much cooperative
and helpful for other persons in a group. Such personalities
have the great tendency of working in groups. The people
with neuroticism traits are depressed and emotional
personalities. Such personalities get confused and worried
about the assigned tasks very frequently. They are mostly
unable to demonstrate their capabilities to others in their
social circle.
III. RE JOB DESCRIPTIONS AND SOFT SKILLS
DESIRED BY INDUSTRY
Capretz et al. (2010) scrutinized the diverse job descriptions
for software engineering roles being announced in well-
known magazines, newspapers and job portals [9]. The
authors compiled a list of job descriptions and soft skills
being demanded by software industry from software
development roles including analyst, designer, programmer,
tester and maintenance team. The different job description
and related soft skills being required from system analyst is
shown below in table-1 and table-2 successively. Consider
the table-1 given below, in which a total of 11 job
descriptions or tasks demanded from requirements engineer
have been presented where each job description has been
assigned with a unique job description code like J01 is
assigned for job description “Extensive liaison with clients”.
Similarly all others job descriptions have also been assigned
a unique code like J02, J03 up to J11. These uniquely
assigned job description codes will be used later in article to
compute and detect the suitable personality traits for
requirements engineering teams.
TABLE-1: JOB PORTRAYALS FOR REQUIREMENTS
ANALYST [9, 10]
S# Requirements Engineer’s “Job Descriptions”
in Industry
Assigned
Code
01 Widespread liaison with customers J01
02 Current systems examination/analysis J02
03 Requirements transformation into project briefs J03
04 Prospective solutions identification and valuation J04
05 Suggesting innovative software solutions for users J05
06 Signifying suggestions for system amendments J06
07 Functioning on software viability/feasibility reports J07
08 Functioning with team to construct suitable product J08
09 Administering fresh system improvement J09
10 Keeping tasks well-aligned with planned time-limit J10
11 Good understanding about industry practices J11
Consider the table-2 in which 11 soft skills have been listed
down. These soft skills have been demanded by software
industry from software engineers working on different
development tasks during software development life cycle
including requirements, design, programming, testing and
maintenance. These 11 soft skills are in fact the most
essential soft skills required by industry in software
engineers. Each of these 11 essential soft skills have been
assigned a unique code like ESS-01 code is assigned to soft
skill of “Communication Skill”. Correspondingly, all other
soft skills have been allocated with unique codes like ESS-
02, ESS-03 up to ESS-11. These uniquely assigned essential
soft skills codes will be used later in article to compute and
detect the suitable personality traits for requirements
engineering team members from charting job portrayals
with soft-skills and re-mapping soft-skills with personality
characteristics/traits.
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TABLE-2: SOFT SKILLS REQUIRED IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS [9, 10]
IV. MAPPING RE JOB DESCRIPTIONS WITH SOFT
SKILLS AND PERSONALITY TRAITS
See the table-3, in which essential soft-skills are plotted on
each job description for requirements analyst/engineer. In
given table, job portrayals have been examined censoriously
and it has been checked that what kinds of soft skills are
necessary to perform that job. Just like, if we see top row of
the table-3 then we can see that job portrayal of
“Widespread liaison with customers” with job description
ID of JD-01 needs soft skills of “Communication Skill” with
ID of S1 (ESS-01), “Interpersonal Skills” with ID of S2
(ESS-02) and “Active Listener Skills” with ID of S8 (ESS-
08). Similarly the remaining all job descriptions with IDs of
JD-02, JD-03 up to JD-11 have been analyzed critically and
for each of them all concerned soft-skills are plotted to see
the most appropriate skills needed. Similarly, the table-3
shows a full map of essential soft skills desired by software
industry on the desired job descriptions for system analyst
or requirements engineer. From the deep analysis of this
table, it can be inferred that a multitude of soft skills are
required to be available in the personality of software
requirements engineers to successfully perform the tasks of
system analysis and requirements specification
documentations. The last row of the given table-3 displays
the aggregate frequency of occurrence of each of soft skills
for system analyst or requirements engineer by looking at
the all tasks being required from him/her.
TABLE-3: DRAWING ESSENTIAL SOFT-SKILLS THROUGH JOB
PORTRAYALS FOR REQUIREMENTS ANALYST
Analyst
JD
Needed “Essential Soft Skills”
S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 S9 S10 S11
J01 Yes Yes - - - - - Yes - - -
J02 - - Yes - - - - - - Yes Yes
J03 Yes Yes - - - - - - - - -
J04 - - - - - - - - Yes Yes -
J05 - - Yes - - - - - Yes Yes -
J06 Yes - - Yes - - - - - - -
J07 Yes - - - - - - - - -
J08 Yes Yes - Yes - Yes - Yes - - -
J09 - Yes - - Yes - - - - - -
J10 - - - Yes Yes - Yes - - - -
J11 - - - Yes Yes - - - - - -
5 4 2 4 3 1 1 2 2 3 1
Consider the table-4, in which essential soft skills have been
mapped on personality characteristics being desired to
obtain the relevant soft skill. For example, if we see at the
top of this table, it can be observed that essential soft skill
with unique ID of ESS-01 can be achieved if the person is
“Social and Talkative”. In other words, we can say that a
person with personality attributes of being “social and
talkative” would have better soft skills of “Communication
Skill”. Similarly, all other essential soft skills with codes of
ESS-02, ESS-03 up to ESS-11 have been mapped with their
most relevant/desired personality attributes. After this, the
highlighted personality characteristics have been mapped on
the most relevant personality traits. Just like, if we see the
table, it can be observed that soft skills of being a “social
and talkative” person are mostly found in persons who have
personality traits of “extraversion”. Similarly, all other soft
skills have been mapped on the related personality traits
using the big-five personality assessment model to see the
full spectrum of desired personality traits for requirements
engineering team members like requirements engineer or
system analyst.
TABLE-4: RELATING SOFT SKILLS WITH BIG-FIVE TRAITS
Essential
Soft
Skills
Related Personality
Attributes/Characteristics
Related
Big-Five Trait
ESS-01 Sociable, Talkative Extraversion
ESS-02 Sociable, Talkative Extraversion
ESS-03 Solution Oriented, Analytical Openness
ESS-04 Curious, Enquiring, Willing to Learn Openness
ESS-05 Responsible, Business like, Organized Conscientiousness
ESS-06 Unselfish, Helpful, Cooperative Agreeableness
ESS-07 Intelligent, Analytical, Imaginative Openness
ESS-08 Interactive, Collaborative, Sociable Extraversion
ESS-09 Inventive, Creative, Innovative Openness
ESS-10 Investigative, Analytical Openness
ESS-11 Curious, Explorer Openness
V. PREDICTING BIG-FIVE PERSONALITY
TRAITS FOR RE TEAMS
See the table-5, which depicts the frequency dissemination
of essential soft-skills and associated personality
attributes/traits for requirements engineer. This table has
two sections including upper-section (which shows the
frequency scattering of vital soft-skills & their personality
traits) and lower-section (which shows the accumulated
frequency based position of personality attributes/traits) as
can be seen from table-5. If we consider this table then we
can see from its upper-section that essential soft skill ESS-
01 appeared in 5 places as required soft skill to perform 5
different job descriptions of requirements analyst or
requirements engineer. This soft skill refers to extraversion
personality as can be seen from table-4. Similarly, essential
soft skills ESS-02 and ESS-04 appeared in 4 places as
required soft skills to perform 4 different job descriptions of
requirements analyst or requirements engineer. These soft
skills refer to extraversion and openness personality traits as
can be seen from table-4. Similarly, all essential soft skills
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ranging from ESS-01 to ESS-11 have been mapped and
relevant personality traits and frequencies of distribution
have been found, as can be seen from the table.
TABLE-5: ESSENTIAL SOFT SKILLS AND RELATED PERSONALITY
TRAITS OF REQUIREMENTS ENGINEER
Frequency Distribution
Essential
Soft Skills
& Their
Personality
Traits
ESS-01 = 5 ESS-02 = 4
ESS-04 = 4
ESS-05 = 3
ESS-10 = 3
ESS-03 = 2
ESS-08 = 2
ESS-09 = 2
ESS-06 = 1
ESS-07 = 1
ESS-11 = 1
E E, O C, O O, E, O A, O, O
Ranking of Personality Traits
Ranking of
Personality
Traits
Highest
Trait
Intermediate
Traits
Lowest
Trait
N.A
Trait
O
(7/11)
E
(6/11)
C
(3/11)
A
(1/11)
N
(0/11)
Now if we look at the lower-section of table-5, we can see
that frequencies of distribution of all soft skills have been
accumulated to find the net frequency of distribution and
then its relevant personality trait have been placed from
right to left in an ascending order. It means that trait of
openness has net frequency of appearance of 7/11, which
means that this trait is required in the personality of
requirements engineer to perform 7 different tasks out of 11
total desired tasks. Similarly, the trait of extraversion has
frequency of appearance of 6/11 and trait of
conscientiousness has frequency of appearance of 3/11 as
can be seen. Hence, this table shows that top three
personality traits of requirements engineer (also known as
system analyst) become openness, extraversion and
conscientiousness. These results generated by this article
are very much aligned with the already results obtained by
other researchers who have been working on this topic.
VI. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
This article presents a method to predict the most suitable
requirements engineering teams by examining the big-five
personality traits of their members and selecting only those
persons whose personalities are most appropriate for
requirements engineering work tasks. The paper findings
recommend openness, extraversion and conscientiousness as
the most appropriate personalities who can positively
contribute in the quality improvement of requirements
engineering process. The paper findings are aligned with the
research findings of other scholars who are working in the
domain of personality assessment of software engineering
teams and work tasks. The closeness of results of this article
with findings of other scholars fully justify the accuracy of
presented method and its authenticity. As a future work, this
proposed methodology of selection of most appropriate
requirements engineering teams by use of personality traits
can be integrated in the form of a software tool. This tool
can be developed by industry practitioners or undergraduate
software engineering students. This tool will be more
applicable for management teams who make the selection
criteria and processes for the induction of software
engineers for requirements engineering teams.
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