A study of the effect of disruptions on the performance of software engineering teams

This paper describes ethnographic observations and analysis of the performance of student teams working on year-long software projects for industrial clients. Personality types were measured using an online version of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), as a basis for studying how individuals interacted within the teams, and the effects of disruptive issues on the quality of work produced by the teams. Aspects recorded included the effect of personality type on behavior towards team mates and how this related to the amount of disruption, and the numbers of positive ideas brought forward from each member. A significant finding was that issues which teams did not discuss adequately caused more problems for the quality of work than issues which produced actual disruption within the team.