What is going on in agile gamification?

Abstract

The potential of gamification is based on the hypothesis that it improves user engagement, motivation, and performance. Gamification has already been used in software development with promising results. Our aim is to get a snapshot of the state of the practice of gamification and agile software development, and to discover what evidence there is about the benefits of this integration. A literature review revealed that current research in the field is at the very early stages, and there are very few studies, some of which do not provide empirical evidence of the impact of gamification on the agile process. Therefore, results will always be inconclusive. However, we found that the impact of gamification on agile team performance is perceived to be positive. Examples of other interesting issues that have arisen are that user stories are the most gamified agile practice or that the most frequently adopted gamification elements are points and badges.