Serious games for teaching agile methods: A review of multivocal literature

Abstract

Serious games (SGs) have emerged to improve the commitment and performance of user players, since they perform an exact mission, integrating with the game mechanics, thus creating a very attractive mission. In software engineering (SE), SGs have been addressed to increase the commitment of developers. Moreover, the use of SGs is of great interest to train and train future professionals to experience situations that they could face in software development. This study presents a multivocal literature review (MLR) to systematize and categorize the state-of-the-art of SGs for teaching Agile Methods. The MLR allowed software practitioners and teachers to identify cutting-edge methods for evaluating SGs, application domains in which the assessments were carried out, and the main features considered for assessing the educational benefits of SGs. For academics and professionals eager to test SGs in the training field of Agile Methods, the findings are helpful to (i) provide evidence regarding the usage of games in SE education, (ii) design game-based teaching/learning strategies, and (iii) offer a repertoire of tactics for assessing the use of SGs in SE courses. In conclusion, the knowledge collected was structured and classified to provide a response to our research questions, aimed at providing a summary of the key research in this area, as well as defining open issues in the field.