Assigning people to roles in software projects

Abstract

SUMMARYThis paper is based on the premise that people's behavioural competencies or characteristics of professional conduct influence the effectiveness and efficiency with which they perform a predetermined role in the software process. We propose a capabilities-oriented process model that includes traditional elements of the software process (activities, products, techniques, people and roles) and the original element of this paper (capabilities). With the aim of adding behavioural competencies to the process model, we define the capability-person and capability-role relationships involved in software development. Additionally, we propose two procedures that are based on each of these relationships: a procedure that can be used to determine the capabilities of the members of a development team; and a procedure that can be used to assign people to perform roles depending on their capabilities and the capabilities demanded by the roles. Finally, the person-capabilities-role relationship has been empirically validated. The results yielded by this experiment confirm the hypothesis that assigning people to roles according to their capabilities and the capabilities demanded by the role improves software development.

Personality, emotional intelligence and work preferences in software engineering: An empirical study

“…Capretz [73] in his study proposes how to map personality types to technical roles using the MBTI personality test. Additionally, Acuña and Juristo [23] in their study show that assigning people to roles according to their capabilities and personality, improves software development. On the subject of suiting people to a particular stage of the development process life cycle, Capretz and Ahmed [14] suggest that taking personality into account in the assignment process increases the chances of the projects' success.…”

“…When studies have considered the personality of developers empirically, they have primarily used dated models or metrics that have been criticized within psychology [20], in particular the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) [21,22,23,24,25]. In contrast, Feldt et al [6] used the modern and more scientifically validated Five-Factor Model (FFM) and found significant associations between personality factors and the attitudes and preferences 2 of 47 industrial software developers.…”

Formalisation and use of competencies for industrial performance optimisation: A survey

“…Further works could study the links between team building and process decomposition in the team. Acuna and Juristo [56] propose a qualitative model and a procedure to assign people to perform roles in software development projects, depending on their capabilities and the capabilities required by the role. Their capabilities-oriented process model includes traditional elements (activities, products, techniques, people and roles) and an original element: capability in order to add behavioural competencies to the process model.…”

ReSySTER: A hybrid recommender system for Scrum team roles based on fuzzy and rough sets

“…Properly assigning people to development roles is crucial for creating productive software development teams (Acuña and Juristo, 2004). In contrast, wrong assignments may result in a significant loss of value due to under-staffing, under or over-qualification of the assigned personnel, and high turnover of poorly matched workers (Naveh et al, 2007).…”