Gamification in requirements engineering

Abstract

Requirements engineering is a crucial part of the software engineering process that has a high impact on the success of software projects. The success of requirements engineering related processes such as requirements elicitation, during which software practitioners gather requirements from stakeholders, is highly dependent on the motivation and engagement of stakeholders that must participate in the process so they can ensure the resulting system functions according to their needs. Gamification is an approach where game elements are used in non-gaming context to increase engagement and motivation. Gamification has been applied in other areas of software engineering and could help increase stakeholder participation in requirements engineering processes, thus improving the resulting software’s quality and overall fittingness for purpose.

This thesis aims to identify ways in which areas of requirements engineering are being gamified. A literature review is conducted, and based on the literature findings, it was observed that requirements elicitation is a common focus of research that contains gamification of requirements engineering due to it being a complex process to navigate, since it is so heavily dependent on the participation of the stakeholders of the system. Other requirements engineering related subjects include requirements analysis and teaching of requirements engineering. Common elements of gamification used include avatars, points, badges, and leaderboards. These elements increase stakeholder engagement by providing fun and enjoyable ways that increase stakeholders’ motivation to participate in requirements engineering through harnessing curiosity, learning, competition, social comparison, creativity, feedback, interactivity, dialogue, and trust.