Personalised continuous software engineering

Abstract

This work describes how human factors can influence continuous software engineering. The reasoning begins from the Agile Manifesto promoting individuals and interactions over processes and tools. The organisational need to continuously develop, release and learn from software development in rapid cycles requires empowered and self-organised agile teams. However, these teams are formed without necessarily considering the members' individual characteristics towards effective teamwork, from the personality and cognitive perspective. In this realm, this paper proposes a two level approach: first, form teams based on their collective personality traits and second, provide personalised tools and methods based on their individual differences in cognitive processing. The approach is motivated by a study conducted in a business environment focusing on task execution, satisfaction and effectiveness of team members in relation to their personalities and cognitive characteristics. Our preliminary results show that human factors provide a promising basis for increasing the capability of continuous software engineering.