Gaming for Agility: Using Serious Games to Enable Agile Project & Portfolio Management Capabilities in Practice

Organizations creating new products and services are increasingly adopting agile project and portfolio management capabilities to remain innovative. However, acquiring the necessary skills and spirit is troublesome for many organizations as they rely heavily on a distinct mindset and experience that can only be acquired in the process. Literature indicates that serious games can help to bridge that gap. In this paper we take the example of agile project management methods to understand how games are applied to support the acquisition of agile and entrepreneurial capabilities. In an explorative study, we conducted qualitative interviews with game developers, business consultants, and agile coaches from nine different companies, and conducted desk research on available open source serious games. Based on 475 minutes of recorded audio, 81 pages of transcripts as well as 26 identified open source games, we discuss the purpose, characteristics, and success factors of serious games and their embedment in training. Further, we provide an analysis of available games and what capabilities they address. Based on our findings we advocate for a wider use of serious games and simulations to support the adoption of agile project and portfolio management capabilities in practice. In particular, we believe the benefits of such an approach allow participants to experience, understand, and be able to work effectively across the different interconnected components of such a capability.

[1]  David R. Michael,et al.  Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform , 2005 .

[2]  Tracy Hall,et al.  Using experimental games to understand communication and trust in Agile software teams , 2013, 2013 6th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE).

[3]  B. Winn.  The Design, Play, and Experience Framework , 2009 .

[4]  Christopher A. Voss,et al.  Case research in operations management , 2002 .

[5]  Mary Dankbaar,et al.  Serious games and blended learning; effects on performance and motivation in medical education , 2016, Perspectives on Medical Education.

[6]  George Mangalaraj,et al.  Challenges of migrating to agile methodologies , 2005, CACM.

[7]  Torgeir Dingsøyr,et al.  Inter-team Coordination in Large-Scale Agile Development: A Case Study of Three Enabling Mechanisms , 2018, XP.

[8]  Tore Dybå,et al.  Overcoming Barriers to Self-Management in Software Teams , 2009, IEEE Software.

[9]  James M. Bieman,et al.  Identifying essential competencies of software engineers , 1994, CSC '94.

[10]  Kalle Lyytinen,et al.  Enacted Routines in Agile and Waterfall Processes , 2011, 2011 AGILE Conference.

[11]  Helen Sharp,et al.  Three 'C's of Agile Practice: Collaboration, Co-ordination and Communication , 2010, Agile Software Development.

[12]  Andy Murray,et al.  Managing successful projects with PRINCE2 , 2009 .

[13]  Donald L. Kirkpatrick,et al.  Transferring Learning to Behavior: Using the Four Levels to Improve Performance , 2005 .

[14]  Thomas Bäck,et al.  Academic education of software engineering practices: towards planning and improving capstone courses based upon intensive coaching and team routines , 2013, 2013 26th International Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T).

[15]  I. Sidhu,et al.  On using games for practicing entrepreneurial mindset , 2016 .

[16]  John R. Anderson.  Acquisition of cognitive skill. , 1982 .

[17]  Sang M. Lee,et al.  IT managers' requisite skills , 2006, Commun. ACM.

[18]  P. Drucker.  Knowledge-Worker Productivity: The Biggest Challenge , 1999, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[19]  James F. Knight,et al.  Serious gaming technology in major incident triage training: a pragmatic controlled trial. , 2010, Resuscitation.

[20]  Francis Tekyi Edum-Fotwe,et al.  Developing project management competency: perspectives from the construction industry , 2000 .

[21]  Bruce A. Scharlau.  Games for teaching software development , 2013, ITiCSE '13.

[22]  Jutta Eckstein,et al.  Xtreme programming and agile coaching , 2003, OOPSLA '03.

[23]  Claire Stevenson,et al.  Assessing Software Design Skills and their Relation with Reasoning Skills , 2013, EduSymp@MoDELS.

[24]  Andrew Aken,et al.  The impact of the skills gap on the recruitment of MIS graduates , 2007, SIGMIS CPR '07.

[25]  Philip E. T. Lewis,et al.  Research Methods for Business Students , 2006 .

[26]  João M. Fernandes,et al.  PlayScrum - A Card Game to Learn the Scrum Agile Method , 2010, 2010 Second International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications.

[27]  Michael J. Prince,et al.  Inductive Teaching and Learning Methods: Definitions, Comparisons, and Research Bases , 2006 .

[28]  B. Katzy,et al.  The kindergarten of entrepreneurship: Developing entrepreneurial spirit and skills through community building at universities , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation/ International Technology Management Conference (ICE/ITMC).

[29]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  Theory Building From Cases: Opportunities And Challenges , 2007 .

[30]  Tore Dybå,et al.  Empirical studies of agile software development: A systematic review , 2008, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[31]  A. Strauss,et al.  Grounded theory , 2017 .

[32]  C. J. Stettina,et al.  Agile portfolio management: An empirical perspective on the practice in use , 2015 .

[33]  Geoff Norman,et al.  The minimal relationship between simulation fidelity and transfer of learning , 2012, Medical education.

[34]  Carlo Salvato,et al.  Capabilities Unveiled: The Role of Ordinary Activities in the Evolution of Product Development Processes , 2009, Organ. Sci..

[35]  Nannette P. Napier,et al.  IT project managers' construction of successful project management practice: a repertory grid investigation , 2009, Inf. Syst. J..