Relax, it's a game: Utilising gamification in learning agile scrum software development

Nitin Naik, Paul Jenkins

Research output: Chapter in Book/Published conference outputConference publication

Abstract

Agile software development is a collective term for collaborative working based on a set values and principles, which has become the de facto approach for the software industry, resulting in it being an essential part of the Software Engineering (SE) curricula for many computing degree courses. One of the most popular Agile software development approaches is Scrum which is widely adopted by the software industry and university curricula. Learning Agile Scrum is imperative for students not just as the part of the SE module but for use in the development of their final software project during the course. Teaching the Agile Scrum approach in a way that students can effectively employ in their final project requires the use of some additional practical aid, which is always a challenging task for teaching staff. Employing commercial tools may not be suitable due to additional financial cost, time and learning curve for students. This paper proposes an easy and effective Game-Based Learning (GBL) approach for Agile Scrum using Trello. Trello is a web- based app with no learning curve used to design any project in a collaborative environment. It is not a Scrum tool, nevertheless its features can be transmuted into a Scrum tool to be used to develop projects. Using this Trello-based gaming activity, students can learn the Agile Scrum approach as a game not as a complex methodology. This proposed GBL approach has been used for two undergraduate courses for the last four years, demonstrating constant improvement for both courses in their learning and assessment whilst comparing it with the traditional teaching approach for Agile Scrum.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIEEE Conference on Games 2019, CoG 2019
PublisherIEEE
ISBN (Electronic)9781728118840
ISBN (Print)978-1-7281-1885-7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Sept 2019
Event2019 IEEE Conference on Games, CoG 2019 - London, United Kingdom
Duration: 20 Aug 201923 Aug 2019

Publication series

NameIEEE Conference on Computatonal Intelligence and Games, CIG
Volume2019-August
ISSN (Print)2325-4270
ISSN (Electronic)2325-4289

Conference

Conference2019 IEEE Conference on Games, CoG 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityLondon
Period20/08/1923/08/19

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