What's Personality Got to Do with It? A Case Study on the Impact of Personality on Requirements Engineering-related Activities

Requirements engineering (RE) comprises human-centric activities requiring collaboration between different software development team roles. While prior research highlights the impact of personality on software development, there is limited empirical evidence on how team members' personalities affect RE. To address this gap, we conducted an exploratory case study in an 11-member software development team, observing 28 team meetings, conducting follow-up interviews, and analyzing the personality profiles of team members using the IPIP-NEO 120 assessment tool developed based on the standard five-factor model of personality. Analysis of the observed meetings and follow-up interviews revealed the potential impacts of team members' diverse characteristics on RE-related activities, along with a set of strategies that may be helpful in overcoming challenges due to team members' diverse characteristics. The personality test scores revealed that most team members obtained high scores on personality traits such as agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience but had average scores for extraversion and neuroticism. By integrating the findings from observations and interviews with team members' personalities, we found potential impacts of certain personality characteristics on RE-related activities. These findings may provide guidance for software teams looking to manage the impact of team members' diverse personalities on RE-related activities and for future researchers investigating these impacts in different contexts.