Gamification in project management: experiences from business and training

Cada vez se aplican más conceptos de gamificación o ludificación en los más diversos ámbitos desde la salud, la enseñanza, el mundo empresarial, etc. En la misma forma, se pueden aplicar estrategias de gamificación para la Gestión de Proyectos. Este documento refleja la experiencia de aplicar distintos conceptos de gamificación en la práctica como la aplicación de lego serious play en las distintas etapas de la gestión de un proyecto: iniciación, planificación, ejecución y cierre de un proyecto en una empresa de ingeniería. Igualmente se muestra experiencias de aplicación de juegos de tablero en cursos de Gestión de Proyectos.More and more concepts of gamification or ludification are applied in the most diverse areas from health, education, the business world, etc. In the same way, gamification strategies can be applied for Project Management. This document reflects the experience of applying different concepts of gamification in practice such as the application of lego serious play in the different stages of project management: initiation, planning, execution and closing of a project in an engineering company. It also shows experiences of application of board games in courses of Project Management

Evaluation of a soft skills serious game educational methodology in an industrial branches technical training program

The technical training of the industrial branches sometimes shows important shortcomings of new graduates in training and practice in analytical skills, high-level critical thinking, communication skills, teamwork and understanding of engineering in business practice. Gamification, understood as the application of design elements and game principles in the context of achieving learning outcomes, acquires a remarkable dimension and relevance. In this context, this job is focused on designing, developing, and measuring the results of a training module including gamification. This module is taught in an experimental training course aimed at a group with a heterogeneous educational level whose all its members play the role of team leader in manufacturing industries. The course is promoted by the Aragon (Spain) Government, and the Aragon Automotive Cluster Association, Caar. This work carries out a methodology and results evaluation project for soft skills problem solving and conflict resolution module, through gamification. For this evaluation, a discussion is carried out on the evaluation methods of gamified training. The work allows to obtain significant results on the methodology used in relation to the heterogeneity of the group. The study draws conclusions about the design of the methodology, the validity and efficacy of the educational method, the evaluation model and the relationship between training, experience and educational results

Evaluación automática en dirección y gestión de proyectos software a través de un juego basado en simulación

La dirección y gestión de proyectos software es un área de gran relevancia a tener en cuenta por los profesionales del sector, en el camino para alcanzar el éxito en la realización de los proyectos software. Debido a ello, de igual o mayor importancia debe ser la formación que los futuros profesionales reciben en dicha materia. No obstante, podemos observar cómo acercar la realidad profesional al ámbito formativo se convierte en una labor complicada lo que produce que los alumnos adquieran sus conocimientos en un entorno teórico, donde carecen de formación práctica con problemas de carácter real durante sus estudios. Los estudios realizados nos han permitido observar que actualmente existe una carencia de herramientas que permiten formar y evaluar a los alumnos en la dirección y gestión de proyectos software. Las herramientas encontradas en este ámbito son de carácter específico, poco flexibles y no permiten evaluar de forma automática a los usuarios durante su utilización. Con el fin de ayudar a suplir dicha carencia, hemos desarrollado una herramienta para la formación y evaluación en la dirección y gestión de proyectos software. Nuestro objetivo con este trabajo es presentar la herramienta desarrollada desde el punto de vista de la ayuda a la evaluación de las competencias que los alumnos adquieren a través del desarrollo de las partidas y su relación con la base pedagógica del construccionismo.SUMMARY -- Software project management is a knowledge scope of great importance to keep in mind by experts, on the road to success in the development of software projects. As a result, equal or higher importance should be training that future practitioners receive in this subject. However, we can see how to bring the professional reality to training field becomes a difficult task. This causes students to acquire knowledge in a theoretical environment where they lack of practical training with real-life scenarios during their studies. Nowadays, we can observe a lack of tools that allow teaching and assessing in software project management. The tools that we found in this area are inflexible, have a quite specific scope and do not allow assessing learner’s new skills automatically. In order to overcome these weaknesses, we have developed a tool to teach and assess in software project management. Our aim with this paper is to present the developed tool from the point of view of the learner’s new skills assessment that students acquire through the games and its relationship with the pedagogical basis of constructionism

Towards a serious game to teach ISO/IEC 12207 software lifecycle process: an interactive learning approach

ISO/IEC12207 training is a key element to provide an ability to software development organizations for selecting a set of required processes, measuring the performance of these processes, and continuously improving them. Traditionally, such training is either performed by an expert individual to the software quality management personnel most likely in form of a seminar in a classroom environment. This may also be given by a suitability qualified professional, such as a registered auditor. However, software requirements are usually subject to change, and therefore such training is not enough to teach the substantial details of the entire standard. This has led to increased reports of complications, which demotivates organization to use this standard. To improve the quality of training, a 3D serious game was proposed for the software practitioners. The preliminary idea here is that the game employs 3D office landscape to provide a realistic virtual environment ensuring that the training will be based on real word like situations. Before building a prototype for our serious game, we consulted five industrial experts whose works are related with ISO standards. To give these practitioners an opportunity to explore the conceptual design and raise some potential problems, the semi-structured interview method was used. Based on the suggestions of experts, dynamics and mechanics of the proposed game were updated. Taken together, initial results suggest that a serious game for teaching ISO/IEC 12207 should be useful for individuals who are interested to learn more about the standard

A study on the effectiveness of a board game as a training tool for project management

Nowadays, games have become one of the useful tools in training.Many instructors and educators have chosen to use games to enhance the way of delivering the course content.An effective game will help the student to understand the concept quickly and get involve in experiential learning. The student can manage and solve the problem as in the actual situation.This study will focus on the effectiveness of board game as a training tool for project management.Two test methods were used in this study which arepilot-test and post-test. These methods were chosen to analyze the effectiveness of using TASKMANAGER Board Game as a teaching tool in increasing the student's comprehension and understanding of the concepts and strategies in project management.Three sub-components assessed were motivation, user experience and learning using Kirkpatrick's level one training evaluation based on the perception of the students.The result obtained indicated that the use of TASKMANAGER board game as a training tool for managing project has a positive impact on student’s learning.It helps students to experience the situation of managing projects to improve their time management, human resource and communication skill

Learning Software Quality Assurance with Bricks

Software Quality Assurance (SQA) and Software Process Improvement (SPI) are topics of crucial importance for software engineers; however, teaching them in a lecture room comes with several limitations due to lack of practical experience. With that in mind, we created KUALI-Brick, a LEGO(R)-based activity that brings SQA and SPI concepts together applying them in order to successfully build a LEGO city. This hands-on activity has been carried out in a fourth-year Software Engineering course at the University of Canterbury, with current results showing high levels of fun, increased engagement and an improved learning experience. We present a step-by-step guide to replicate the activity as well as lessons learned after conducting the activity for three consecutive years.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, ICSE-JSEET 202

Optimal estimating the project completion time and diagnosing the fault in the project

The main objective of the project management team is to implement the project taking into consideration the Budget, schedule and constraints. In addition, project accomplishment, especially with large projects, requires the project to be correctly envisaged. Earned value (EV) management is a valuable technique for analyzing and controlling the performance of the project and predicting the total cost before its completion. Thus, fuzzy systems such as Adaptive Network based on the Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) and Parallel Structure based on the Fuzzy System (PSFS) are used to predict the project completion time. In this paper, the plan value diagram is used to predict the earn value diagram using three methods. These three methods are based on the PSFS and Neural Networks (NNs), which help with the implementation of the projects in organizations. The results of these three methods decreased the prediction error of the EV diagram by up to 2%