Model-driven game development: experience and model enhancements in software project management education

The inadequate use of management techniques in software projects is usually associated with lack of efficient strategies to teach managers and prepare them to face the challenges imposed by real-world projects. Many studies have proposed that a learning-by-doing educational approach would be more effective than the traditional lecture-oriented, professor-centered strategy. However, the former approach requires an environment where students can act as managers without the cost and risks associated with project failures. Games are proposed to act as such an environment, emulating reality through graphical or textual constructs and allowing the trainees to play the managers' role in a risk-free environment. In this work, we present our experiences in developing system dynamics based games for software project management. We describe a project management game intended for training purposes and the changes that were made to allow a system dynamics simulator to support game-like interactions. Moreover, we describe an experimental evaluation of the game's application as a learning-by-doing environment for management students. On the basis of the experience we acquired by building such an interface, we propose models to describe the story underlying a game and its graphical presentation. Such models allow the construction of games without programming, thus fastening the development of simulation-based games. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.