Challenges of gamification in software process improvement

Abstract

Software process improvement (SPI) initiatives have contributed for a long time to the progress of software development. However, the outcome of such initiatives has not always been as effective as expected. The literature of SPI points out that motivation of practitioners involved in SPI initiatives is a critical factor for its success. On the other hand, gamification has been perceived as motivational and has the potential to improve people's engagement. Thus, researchers have been recently investigating the impact of gamification in increasing the motivation and commitment of the organization members involved in SPI. Despite the novelty of the field, we see the integration of gamification and SPI as an opportunity of study and research. The aim of this paper is to investigate and report the state of the practice in this field, identifying key challenges faced by organizations wishing to incorporate gamification into their SPI initiatives. One of the main challenges identified is related to the complexity of gamifying SPI because it involves different organizational roles and aspects that may require designing different gamification strategies. Another relevant issue is the need of more empirical data to provide sound evidence about the real impact of gamification on improving SPI initiatives.

A Gamified Framework to Integrate User Experience into Agile Software Development Process

“…While many research papers in the field of gamifying software engineering present customized gamification tools as a proof of concept, introducing a new process with a new tool different than what the company is accustomed to can face rejection and potentially a negative impact of the gamified experience (García et al, 2017). A similar observation was also reported in a study in the field of gamification in software process improvement (SPI) when participants reported the feeling of pressure and lack of fun when introduced to a new gamified tool "Gamiware" (Herranz, Colomo-Palacios and Seco, 2015;Alhammad and Moreno, 2020). Accordingly, in efforts to improve the GOAL framework, the authors developed a new study where they extended the framework to a more abstract level to present an "architecture" instead (Pedreira et al, 2020).…”

“…For this step, we followed the recommendation of Werbach and Hunter (2015) that a gamification strategy should not be overloaded with game elements. In addition, we took into consideration the lessons learned from our previous work on gamification in SE education (Alhammad and Moreno, 2018a), gamification in agile (Alhammad and Moreno, 2018b), and gamification in SPI (Alhammad and Moreno, 2020) that was outlined in The engagement loops and progression stairs described in step four provides the skeleton of our gamification strategy. Starting with gamification dynamics, the GLUX framework incorporates progression and relationships based on the analysis of software engineers' motivators and aligned with the goals of this projects.…”

“…The decision to keep the implementation of GLUX as simple as possible was also triggered by the lessons learned from our previous work on gamification in SE education (Alhammad and Moreno, 2018a), gamification in agile (Alhammad and Moreno, 2018b), and gamification in SPI (Alhammad and Moreno, 2020). In the previous chapter, we outlined 17 lessons learned that was taken into consideration throughout the design and development of GLUX (Chapter 4, section 4.2.3.1).…”

“…As part of the design process, we also examined how gamification was employed in software engineering, particularly in software engineering education (Alhammad and Moreno, 2018a), agile (Alhammad and Moreno, 2018b), and SPI (Alhammad and Moreno, 2020). Our goal was to identify the key trends and challenges.…”

Gamification in IT Service Management: A Systematic Mapping Study

“…The authors concluded that the key benefit of using gamification in software engineering processes is the improvement of the software personnel's engagement and motivation to conduct tasks. On the other hand, the systematic mapping conducted in [41] aimed to research and report the state of the gamification use for enhancing software processes and to identify the main challenges to include gamification into the initiatives of software process improvement. The resulting challenges mainly focused on the complexity of gamifying software processes and the need for more empirical research.…”