The Role of Gamification in a Software Development Lifecycle

Teaching Software Engineering students raises a number of challenges; in particular that student developers typically demonstrate behaviours that run counter to good software development. These include failing to plan properly, failing to develop their software in a structured manner, and failing to meet specified deadlines (so called "student syndrome"). Consequentially, students exhibiting these behaviours are more likely to disengage from their studies. Even where submissions are made, they tend to be lower in quality, and may not demonstrate the true capabilities of the individual. Such alienation and disengagement is amplified by the current context of learning in a pandemic, with a wall of digital communication technology coming between teachers and learners. In this paper, the authors will identify how gamification approaches can be applied to software development education, and how they can help to better motivate and educate future software developers through computer managed delivery and assessment. As motivation is a key factor, motivational properties known in computer gaming are applied within the new context of a software engineering lifecycle. The role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for developers is considere. The gamified techniques identified are further enhanced with an Agile type approach. This has been particularly critical during 2020/21 where the shift to fully online learning for previously face to face taught students has placed new pressures on students and staff.

Software Development with Scrum: A Bibliometric Analysis and Profile

Introduction of the Scrum approach into software engineering has changed the way software is being developed. The Scrum approach emphasizes the active end-user involvement, embracing of change, and /iterative delivery of products. Our study showed that Scrum has different variants or is used in combination with different methods. Some tools not normally used in the conventional software approaches, like gamification, content analysis and grounded theory are also employed. However, Scrum like other software development approach focuses on improvement of software process, software quality, business value, performance, usability and efficiency and at the same time to reduce cost, risk and uncertainty. Contrary to some conventional approaches it also strives to boost soft factors like agility, trust, motivation, responsibility and transparency. The bibliometric synthetic scoping study revealed seven main research themes concerned with the Scrum research

Gamification Applied to Project Management and Agile Methodologies for Fast Development Teams

The exponential increase of projects in the area of software development along with others has led teams to adhere to agile methodologies. These methodologies aim to guarantee the quality and speed with which the project is developed, and help organize teams to not waste valuable resources. However, every so often it is identified a lack of motivation on the part of developers and managers to adhere to these methodologies, either for social reasons, psychological barriers, or even a lack of motivation in general. To decrease the effects of the adoption problems, solutions such as gamification promise to increase user engagement and motivation. The applied mechanics simulate a fun environment similar to what is found in video games to change the way users look at agile solutions, and overcome their difficulties in adopting them. The created gamified solution was based on the Kanban methodology and simulates how it could be applied in a real professional environment. The objective of this solution is to find the main elements of motivation for users, to facilitate their adoption of these methodologies. Finally, to confirm the applied approach, an evaluation was made through a survey. In the future, the solution should be built and applied in a real work environment, to obtain results in a more detailed way, and thus continuously develop and adapt the solution accordingly.O aumento exponencial de projetos na área de desenvolvimento de software e afins tem levado equipas a aderir a metodologias ágeis. Estas metodologias visam garantir a qualidade e rapidez com que o projeto é desenvolvido, e ajudam na organização das equipas por forma a não desperdiçar recursos. Contudo, por vezes é identificada falta de motivação por parte de desenvolvedores e gestores em aderir a estas metodologias, seja por motivos sociais, barreiras psicológicas, ou até mesmo falta de motivação em geral. Por forma a reduzir os efeitos da falta de motivação na adoção às metodologias ágeis, a implementação de mecânicas de gamificação, promete aumentar a participação e motivação dos utilizadores. Estas mecânicas simulam um ambiente divertido, similar ao encontrado em videojogos, desta forma, proporcionando uma nova experiência Ágile aos utilizadores, que ajuda a motivar e ultrapassar as suas dificuldades de aderência. A solução gamificada criada, tem como base a metodologia Kanban, que simula como seria aplicada em contexto real, uma verdadeira plataforma Kanban gamificada. O objetivo desta solução é encontrar quais os elementos de motivação dos utilizadores, por forma a facilitar a adoção a estas metodologias. Por fim, por forma a confirmar a abordagem aplicada, foi feita uma avaliação através de um questionário. No futuro, a solução deverá ser construída e aplicada num contexto real, por forma a obter resultados de forma mais detalhada, e assim, adaptar e desenvolver continuamente a solução conforme os mesmos.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Next generation pedagogy: IDEAS for online and blended higher education. Final report of the FUTURA (Future of university teaching: update and a roadmap for advancement) project

Next generation pedagogy: IDEAS for online and blended higher education. Final report of the FUTURA (Future of university teaching: update and a roadmap for advancement) projec

Next generation pedagogy: IDEAS for online and blended higher education. Final report of the FUTURA (Future of university teaching: update and a roadmap for advancement) project

Next generation pedagogy: IDEAS for online and blended higher education. Final report of the FUTURA (Future of university teaching: update and a roadmap for advancement) projec

A situational approach for the definition and tailoring of a data-driven software evolution method

Successful software evolution heavily depends on the selection of the right features to be included in the next release. Such selection is difficult, and companies often report bad experiences about user acceptance. To overcome this challenge, there is an increasing number of approaches that propose intensive use of data to drive evolution. This trend has motivated the SUPERSEDE method, which proposes the collection and analysis of user feedback and monitoring data as the baseline to elicit and prioritize requirements, which are then used to plan the next release. However, every company may be interested in tailoring this method depending on factors like project size, scope, etc. In order to provide a systematic approach, we propose the use of Situational Method Engineering to describe SUPERSEDE and guide its tailoring to a particular context.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Challenges and opportunities of low-code platforms for software development

The current energy and climate crisis emphasize the energy-efficiency knowledge gap as a pressing problem. This is addressed in the report and the mobile application called EnMo, which was developed as part of this field lab. Topics regarding gamification, big data analytics, and low-code development were investigated. The findings provide the foundation for developing the app and its mission as a solution to the problem. EnMo incentivizes users to reduce their household energy consumption, by collecting user information and providing educational and gamified content. Thus, EnMo enables consumers to change their behavior and reduce their energy-efficiency knowledge gap. This exposition discusses the challenges and opportunity of low-code platforms for software development specifically. While speedy development, low maintenance and cost as well as low transparency and customization were filtered out as advantages of low-code, potential vendor lock-ins, black box issues and the fear of replacing software developers might present pitfalls of the technology

Agile Course Design: Multi-University Faculty Collaboration to Design the MIS Course for an Online MBA Program

This paper outlines a collaborative course design process to develop and implement a required IS course in an online cohort-based MBA program using principles of The Agile Manifesto. The primary goal of this study is to analyze how students in traditionally developed courses and those in collaboratively developed courses differ. Specifically, we sought to reduce variability in student satisfaction across multiple sections offered by instructors who hail from different universities. We compared three semesters of students who took the course before (n = 101) and after (n = 162) use of the agile course development process. We found less variability in student evaluations in the ‘after’ group as compared to the ‘before’ group, providing support that the agile course development process provided a more consistent and similar experience for students. The second goal is to evaluate changes in student evaluations, comparing ‘before’ and ‘after’ groups. We did not expect to see substantial improvement since all instructors already received very high evaluations. Scores for all questions on the student evaluations increased after using the agile process, but the increases were not statistically significant. The final goal is to prepare an agenda for future research on agile course development based on components of The Agile Manifesto that were not used in the course development process. Opportunities include: comparing the agile course development process to other methods; adding more targeted questions to the student survey to better gauge changes in student satisfaction; partnering with alumni, current students, and industry to develop more relevant course material; and extending the process to other contexts