On Psychometric Instruments in Software Engineering Research: An Ongoing Study
Danilo Almeida Felipe, Marcos Kalinowski

TL;DR
This study critically reviews the use of psychometric instruments in software engineering research to better understand human factors, highlighting the need for more rigorous application and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Contribution
It provides a systematic mapping of psychometric instruments used in SE and initiates a survey to assess their adoption by social sciences researchers.
Findings
Initial catalog of psychometric instruments in SE
Preliminary survey design to evaluate adoption
Ongoing data collection and analysis
Abstract
[Context] Although software development is an inherently human activity, research in software engineering (SE) has long focused mostly on processes and tools, failing to recall about the human factors behind. Even when explored, researchers typically do not properly use psychology background to better understand human factors in SE, such as the psychometric instruments, which aim to measure human factors. [Objective] Our goal is to provide a critical review on the use of psychometric instruments in SE research regarding personality. [Method] We present a two-step study. First, a systematic mapping of the literature in order to generate a catalog of the psychometric instruments used; second, a preliminary survey to be conducted with social sciences researchers to assess their adoption in SE research. [Results and Conclusion] The results so far are quite initial. The next steps direct us…
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Taxonomy
TopicsSoftware Engineering Techniques and Practices · Software Engineering Research
