Educational games: A contribution to software testing education

Abstract

Software testing is a relevant activity to provide evidence of qualifty of software products. However, there is a lack of qualified professionals in this area. This can be caused due to difficulty in teaching software testing through approaches that use only theoretical classes and traditional tools. In addition, there is a lack of motivation due to the work environment and the strategies of allocation and responsibility of these professionals in development and testing teams. To mitigate these problems, approaches have been used to support software testing education, such as: educational games, integrated teaching of software testing with programming, educational modules, among others. The objective of this paper was to develop an educational game named Testing Game, addressing the following topics: functional testing, structural testing and mutation testing. To support the development of the Testing Game, we performed a systematic mapping aiming at selecting a game engine. To evaluate the efficiency of the game, we conducted a feasibility study to evaluate the quality regarding motivation, user experience and learning from the point of view of the students. We also evaluate the usability of the Testing Game. Approximately 85.64% of people who participated in the study assessed the quality of the game in a positive perspective regarding motivation, user experience and learning from the point of view of the students. Regarding the usability of the game, students identified minor problems. Through this work, we realize that the game Testing Game can constitute as a complementary resource to support software testing education.