The correlation between personality type and individual performance on an ICT Project

In any software development project, in any one of the major stages of the software development life cycles, namely analysis, design, implementation, testing and evaluation each role player plays a significant role in the project´s delivery. The human dimension can often be even more important than the technical dimension in any software project, as proven by research [1]. People are known to be one of the success factors in creating and altering software systems. This paper will illustrate and present the existence, if at all, of the correlation between the personality type and individual performance on an information technology project. The Myers-Briggs personality type (derived from the “Big 5” personality methodology, leading to a less stereotypical type of personality) will be analysed from a personality perspective. The Belbin Team Roles Assessment Tool will also be investigated during the process of reaching my conclusion. This will be useful to project managers to determine which personality types to deploy to which roles in order to maximise individual performance and subsequent project success.