Predicting Software Testing Job Fit: Personality, Culture & Technical Expertise

1. Can Employees’ Personality and Cultural Characteristics be Used to Predict their Best Fit with Software Testing Job Tasks? Judith C. Simon, Judith C. Brown Charles Campbell, Sandra Richardson

2. Presentation Overview • Importance of topic • Theoretical basis • Personality • Culture • Technical expertise • Interview data • Preliminary model • Follow-up research

3. Importance of Topic • Trend toward greater organizational reliance on information systems as part of strategy • Increased complexity of software development • Globalization, with diverse development teams • “People” component identified as the biggest issue in IT management

4. Theoretical Basis - Personality • Personality tests have been used to help determine job fit for employees • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a widely used measure, shown to be reliable and valid when used appropriately • Personality types have been identified as an important factor in successful team importance (balance needed for complex tasks)

5. Theoretical Basis - Culture • Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions • Power Distance: extent that different group members see inequality vs. equality in a power struggle • Individualism: extent that individuals assume an identify beyond a group • Masculinity or Femininity: gender role • Uncertainty Avoidance: significance of structured or unstructured events re behavior • Long-term Orientation: values of the future vs. values of the present

6. UNITED STATES • RANKINGS FOR DIMENSIONS

7. INDIA • RANKINGS FOR DIMENSIONS

8. COMPARISON

9. Theoretical Basis – Technical Expertise Studies indicating critical knowledge / skills desired for IT professionals: • Interpersonal communication skills • Interpersonal behavior skills • Personal motivation and working independently • Critical thinking • Creative thinking

10. Interview Data • Participants: Software testing managers • “Intangibles” were rated as very important • Self motivation, energy, level, flexibility • Team orientation, including team leader skills • Integrity, sense of quality • Process discipline • Communications and interpersonal skills

11. Interview Data, cont’d Issues with cultural differences: • Language difficulties encountered between workers in U.S. vs. India; observation that face-to-face communications were better understood than written communications • Greater interest in Indian culture in work advancement compared with quality of life issues • Regular job changes more likely for those employed in India

12. Model Development • Preliminary model, based on theoretical content (no actual data available yet) • Designed to test data to see what factors of personality, culture, and technical expertise might be best used to predict job success

13. MBTI Thinking/ Feeling MBTI Sensing/ Intuition MBTI Judgment/ Perception Personality MBTI Extrovert/ Introvert Employee Evaluations Awards Employee Job Satisfaction Power Distance Individualism Rewards Uncertainty Avoidance Culture Job Success Masculinity Long-term Orientation Leadership Experience Technical Expertise Programming Skills Education

14. Follow-up Research • Further development using Structured Equation Modeling or logistic regression techniques • Use of actual data to assess the influence of these characteristics on job performance • Eventual use of model to make effective decisions related to software testing job assignments • Expansion of model to software development and other IT tasks and functions