A framework for gamification in software engineering

• Published in: The Journal of systems and software 2017-10, Vol.132, p.21-40
• Main Authors: García, Félix, Pedreira, Oscar, Piattini, Mario, Cerdeira-Pena, Ana, Penabad, Miguel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Gamification; Methodology; Ontology; Software engineering
• ISSN: 0164-1212; 1873-1228
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2017.06.021

•The nature of software engineering tasks can threat to engagement and motivation.•A gamification framework for Software Engineering environments is presented.•An ontology, a methodology guiding the process and a support tool are proposed.•Companies can apply the proposal with appropriate design and development effort. Gamification seeks for improvement of the user's engagement, motivation, and performance when carrying out a certain task; it does so by incorporating game mechanics and elements, thus making that task more attractive. The application of gamification in Software Engineering can be promising; software projects can be organized as a set of challenges which can be ordered and that need to be fulfilled, for which some skills, and mainly much collective effort, are required. The objective of this paper is to propose a complete framework for the introduction of gamification in software engineering environments. This framework is composed of an ontology, a methodology guiding the process, and a support gamification engine. We carried out a case study in which the proposed framework was applied in a real company. In this project the company used the framework to gamify the areas of project management, requirements management, and testing. As a result, the methodology has clearly enabled the company to introduce gamification in its work environment, achieving a quality solution with appropriate design and development effort. The support tool allowed the company to gamify its current tools very easily.