Case study of the introduction of game design techniques in software development

Abstract

Software development, in many moments, is an exciting and challenging activity, but it can present itself as a boring endeavour in others. At the same time, the introduction of game elements into efforts such as the teaching of Software Engineering shows that real-world activities can assemble game design elements and that it can make them more engaging. In this work, it is proposed the introduction of game design elements in software development, especially in the Scrum process. For this, elements are included to stimulate adherence to the prescriptions of the process, besides stimulating the execution of more activities by the team, positively impacting the productivity of a project. The authors present the idealised mechanics and the results obtained from the accomplishment of a case study in a software development team in a private company. Overall, the gamification applied to software development stimulated developers to perform their daily tasks, although this result did not generate strong evidence of increased productivity.

Gamification in software engineering: the mediating role of developer engagement and job satisfaction

“…We observed a number of shortcomings in the gamification literature. First, few rigorous empirical studies have focused on gamification mechanisms in industry contexts with professional developers, with a few notable exceptions (Herranz et al 2018 ; Snipes et al 2014 ; Neto et al 2018 ; Marques et al 2020 ). Many papers in this domain propose conceptual frameworks or new tools, some of which have been empirically evaluated.…”

Mobile Gamification Applied to Employee Productivity in Companies: A Systematic Review

“…Related studies 2016 4 [30], [31], [34], [40] 2017 3 [27], [32], [35] 2018 4 [36], [41], [46], [48] 2019 5 [38], [42], [43], [44], [47] 2020 7 [22], [24], [26], [28], [33], [39], [45] 2021 6 [3], [23], [25], [29], [37], [49]…”

“…[24] Management [31], [3], [38], [47] IT [27], [33], [34], [42], [43] Production [28], [29], [30], [41], [48], [49] Logistics…”

“…[38] For the information technology areas, software development can be more efficient, not only with agile methodologies [43], but also by incorporating the gamification of their processes [33]. This encourages a more active participation [34] and focused on having a quality product. [27] To a lesser extent, mobile gamification is being used to train in sales techniques [39], or business management [36].…”

“…[40] For this reason, it is important to involve workers in the gamification designs of business applications. [34]…”