The Psychology of Software Engineers

The personality traits of software engineers tend to be quite different from those of the general population. In recent years, psychologists have come to a nearly unanimous consensus on the number and nature of human personality dimensions. A recent large-scale study involving several hundred software engineers and "regular" people (non-engineers) revealed that the personalities of developers, testers, and managers tend to be different from each other and from the personalities of the general population as a whole. So, how can you use this information? Although administering a personality assessment as part of a hiring process may be legal, it is problematic at best. A much better use of a personality assessment is to gauge the profile of your existing team members to maximize their productivity. Join James McCaffrey as he describes how you can quickly and easily create, administer, and interpret a personality profile of your team. At the conclusion of the session, you will have the opportunity to take the personality assessment used in the study and see how your personality compares with other software professionals.