A comparative study of three personality assessment models in software engineering field

People with different personalities see a problem from several perspectives and make different decisions in a software project. Therefore, some researchers have associated software personnel´s psychological personality types with the various tasks in recent years. But which psychological personality model is best suited to software engineering field has not been examined fully. This article discusses the Big Five personality model, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, which are popular personality assessment models in psychology. Based on extant research literature, this study presents their relationships and differences from conceptual content, measurement method and application results. Our analysis suggests that the Big Five model is much better than the other two in software engineering field. Our finding has important implications for researchers studying effectiveness and fulfilment among software engineers. Likewise, our study attempts to bring in fresh insights from personality psychology to enrich software engineering research.