Software engineering team diversity and performance

Abstract

Reflection on software engineering as a sub-discipline within computer science reveals that it is as much about people and teamwork as it is about technical expertise. It is therefore important that a software engineer is not only competent in software development but also able to work effectively in a team. Based on the scholarly literature we derived a simple model for team composition and used it to guide, without coercion, our students during team formation. This research reports on an investigation into the role of personality diversity within teams of tertiary students taking a course in software engineering. Data collected confirms that both personality diversity in teams as well as competence of teams impacts positively on team performance. In contrast to other studies, our research data does not seek to couple personality with appropriate role allocation in the team; rather, our measurement is in respect of "raw" team diversity alone. In this study the correlation between personality diversity and the success of teams were captured at different stages during the development of a software engineering project tackled by the teams. The same was done with correlation between competence and team success. The personality diversity of the teams showed a strong correlation with team success during the inception phase. This correlation however weakened during the course of the year while the correlation between competence and success started slightly weaker than personality diversity during the inception phase, but grew very strong towards the completion of the team projects. © 2006 SAICSIT.