Mazni Omar

A rule-based model for software development team composition: Team leader role with personality types and gender classification

Abstract Context Recent studies have established the fact that the supply of handy and successful software has decreased to 6%. The past studies have also attributed this supply failure to software development team composition factor. To overcome this problem, it is also suggested in the past studies that the soft skills of team member must be considered along with the hard skills. Objective Keeping in view this problem, this study aimed to look for in-depth understanding of team-lead role with personality types of member. This study also included gender to see its diverting impact on personality types and job role, since past studies have also raised many issues pertinent to these two variables. Method This study used the experimented data to develop the rule-based model for software development team composition by keeping gender as major effecting variable with personality. There were three independent predictor variables: Team leader role, Personality types, and Gender; and one outcome dependent variable: team performance. Additionally, personality types of team members were measured by using Myers–Briggs Type Indicator(MBTI) instrument. This study divided the experiments into two stages. The first stage was descriptive examination of factual figures of data for model development. Whereas, the second stage was predictive experiments of data for developing the model. Results The findings revealed that each gender emerged compatible with different types of personality for the same role. For instance, descriptive analysis part of this research highlighted that feeling(F) personality males were appropriate for team leader role, on another hand, thinking(T) personality females were suitable for the team lead role. Conclusion The conclusion can be drawn with the claim that the personality types of software development team roles fluctuate by gender type. Besides, this study revealed and ensured that gender should be kept in the consideration when composing teams based on personality types.

Developing a Team Performance Prediction Model: A Rough Sets Approach

This paper presents a rough sets approach in developing a team performance prediction model. To establish the prediction model, a dataset from an academic setting was obtained, consisting of four predictor variables: prior academic achievement, personality types, personality diversity, and software development methodology. In this study, four main steps in rough set, including discretisation, reduct generation rules, generation of decision rules, and evaluation were used to develop the prediction model. Two reduction algorithms; a genetic algorithm (GA) and a Johnson algorithm were used to obtain optimal classification accuracy. Results show that the Johnson algorithm outperformed the GA with 78.33% model prediction accuracy when using 10-fold cross validation. The result clearly shows that the rough sets is able to uncover complex factors in team dynamism, which revealed that the combination of the four predictor variables are important in developing the team performance prediction model. The model provides a practical contribution in predicting team performance.

Positive Affects Inducer on Software Quality

This paper presents an early empirical study on an agile methodology (Extreme Programming) using Positive Affect metric. The question of interest is whether an agile methodology has any distinct outcome on the positive affectivity of the software developers. And whether these affects will contribute to the quality of software produced. Quantitative methods were utilized, including participative observation and simple statistical tests such as Spearman Correlation and Mann-Whitney test. The results showed that Extreme Programming has positive affectivity which leads to the increase in software quality. This study suggests that when people experience joy and mild contentment, they are more likely to be more creative over wider range of problems, become more resilient over time and are more likely to develop long-term plans and goals.

Impact of software team composition methodology on the personality preferences of Malaysian students

Inappropriate team composition is one of the important factors that impact the overall results of software development. Software development integrates the technical part of work with social norms. Many studies have been carried out in this domain to provide effective solution for the mentioned problem. But, the ambiguity of the problem exists in the team models and methodologies where different researchers accentuate on different individual types of personality for an effective role in the teamwork. Therefore, this study intended to measure the differences in the personality preferences after applying the proposed methodologies for software development team composition. For that purpose, this study used RAMSET (Role Assignment Methodology for Software Engineering Teams) methodology to measure the impact on personality preferences of Malaysian students. In the study experiment, six teams followed the RAMSET steps (called Group RAMSET or GR) and six teams did not follow (called Group Freestyle or GF). Based on the results, one impression can be made that the personality preferences affect the overall project success. Therefore, it is important to find the effective personality preferences for software development roles to incorporate within the models and methodologies.

Making programmer suitable for team-leader: Software team composition based on personality types

The profuse use of software has turned the world into global village where everything is accessible at finger tips. The past studies have confirmed the rapid increase in the demand of software whereas its quality supply has drastically decreased to 6%. As high demand and low supply normally generate numerous problems, many researchers, therefore, have raised their concern to develop software affordable, less time consuming and feasible to achieve organisational ends. The findings of the past research studies have determined the fact that besides technical skills, human resources (i.e., personality type for team composition) is of pivotal importance for developing software which has not been seriously addressed. This study has tried to address this prevailing problem by focusing on patterns of personality types of programmer role monitored with team-leader. Additionally, to draw the attention of practitioners, the results are validated with several classification techniques and results appeared with high accuracy. The study has implications on both software developers and researchers having their interest in role of team composition in software development.

Finding the Effectiveness of Software Team Members Using Decision Tree

This paper presents steps taken in finding the effectiveness of software team members using decision tree technique. Data sets from software engineering (SE) students were collected to establish pattern relationship among four predictor variables—prior academic achievements, personality types, team personality diversity, and software methodology—as input to determine team effectiveness outcome. There are three main stages involved in this study, which are data collection, data mining using decision tree, and evaluation stage. The results indicate that the decision tree technique is able to predict 69.17 % accuracy. This revealed that the four predictor variables are significant and thus should consider in building a team performance prediction model. Future research will be carried to obtain more data and use a hybrid algorithm to improve the model accuracy. The model could facilitate the educators in developing strategic planning methods in order to improve current curriculum in SE education.

A Rough-Fuzzy Inference System for Selecting Team Leader for Software Development Teams

Inappropriate team composition is one of the important factors that can impact the overall process of software development. Numerous models for team composition have also been suggested, yet they have been disapproved by the researchers and organisations for having ineffectiveness in yielding positive results. Therefore, this study proposes a rough-fuzzy model for selecting team leader for software development teams to avoid the limitations of individual techniques (i.e., Rough Set Theory (RST) or Fuzzy Set Theory (FST)). Moreover, the model development was divided into two portions: Decision Rules Development and Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) development. Johnson Algorithm (JA) was applied using ROSETTA toolkit under rough set theory principles for decision rule construction. Decision rules were then used under Mamdani’s fuzzy inference method. At the end, the developed model was validated based on the results of prediction accuracy and F1-measures.

A process for developing an instrument to measure the persuasion perspectives of parents using PMCOM app

The current study focused on the instrument designing to measuring the persuasion perspectives of parents using persuasive mobile child’s obesity monitor (PMCOM) app. So far, there is no single agreement on how to measure the level of persuasion of users especially for behaviour change systems. Therefore, the majority of researchers attempt to measure the level of users’ acceptance or attitude. In this context, the present paper is aimed to provide a general process of an instrument design to be persuasive and generalizable for a similar behaviour change system, and appropriate for a similar context to target different groups of parents in other areas. A review of literature analysis led to five dimensions located under three variables that include trigger, ability and motivation. These variables are used to establish the required behaviour when combined with mobile applications. Finally, the process of developing this questionnaire provides guidance and information on the construction and validation of the questionnaires for any future studies.

Identification of criteria affecting software project monitoring task of Agile Kanban method

Currently, software development organizations (SDOs) attempt to deliver their software products quickly, within the prescribed period, and with the highest quality and lowest cost, yet this is proven a big challenge for them. Agile Kanban method recently is gaining increasing attention and popularity, due to its numerous advantages that make it performs better than other methods in terms of managing software projects. Beside of that, it has a board that used to visualize the workflow and monitor the project progress. However, various studies have shown that this method has significant challenges that negatively impact the scheduling of the development process. Consequently, late delivery of software projects may occur, thus the rate of projects’ failures will be increased. This paper aims to identify the challenges and criteria that affect the progress monitoring task of Agile Kanban method using a narrative review method, whereby this review method is adopted to identify and summarize what has been previously published, avoid duplications, and seek new study areas which are not yet addressed. Finally, the findings of this study would be used to develop an improved software project monitoring task model of Agile Kanban method. That model would be capable to keep projects progress as it is planned, and thus leading to successful delivering for software projects according to its specifications, time, and budget.

Transition to Agile method without Agile-compliant performance appraisal?

Changes in software development methods should lead to revision and reformation of an organization’s performance appraisal system. Several organizations, however, have done a transition to Agile software development methods without reforming the organization’s performance appraisal. The performance appraisal should be aligned with Agile values, principles, and practices, which advocate interactions, collaborations, teamwork, and knowledge transfer. This research aims to reform an Agile-compliant performance appraisal with the following objectives: i) to determine assessment criteria of an Agile- compliant performance appraisal, ii) to construct an Agile-compliant performance appraisal model, iii) to validate an Agile- compliant performance appraisal model that aligns with Agile values and practices. This research comprises of four main phases which are theoretical study, expert reviews, surveys, and evaluation of the model. Expert reviews on components of Agile- compliant performance appraisal and surveys among Agile practitioners will lead to the development of an Agile-compliant performance appraisal model. An Agile compliant performance appraisal model provides new insights on how to evaluate Agile team members in fairly and consistent manner. This indirectly increases the motivation amongst team members and tends to produce a capable workforce to perform at a higher level.Changes in software development methods should lead to revision and reformation of an organization’s performance appraisal system. Several organizations, however, have done a transition to Agile software development methods without reforming the organization’s performance appraisal. The performance appraisal should be aligned with Agile values, principles, and practices, which advocate interactions, collaborations, teamwork, and knowledge transfer. This research aims to reform an Agile-compliant performance appraisal with the following objectives: i) to determine assessment criteria of an Agile- compliant performance appraisal, ii) to construct an Agile-compliant performance appraisal model, iii) to validate an Agile- compliant performance appraisal model that aligns with Agile values and practices. This research comprises of four main phases which are theoretical study, expert reviews, surveys, and evaluation of the model. Expert reviews on components of Agile- compliant performance appraisal and surveys...