Gamification of Software Testing

Abstract

Writing good software tests is difficult, not everysoftware developer’s favorite occupation, and not a prominentaspect in programming education. However, human involvementin testing is unavoidable: What makes a test good is oftendown to intuition; what makes a test useful depends on anunderstanding of the program context; what makes a test findbugs depends on understanding the intended program behaviour.Because the consequences of insufficient testing can be dire, thispaper explores a new angle to address the testing problem:Gamification is the approach of converting potentially tediousor boring tasks to components of entertaining gameplay, wherethe competitive nature of humans motivates them to competeand excel. By applying gamification concepts to software testing,there is potential to fundamentally change software testing inseveral ways: First, gamification can help to overcome deficienciesin education, where testing is a highly neglected topic. Second,gamification engages practitioners in testing tasks they wouldotherwise neglect, and gets them to use advanced testing toolsand techniques they would otherwise not consider. Finally, gamificationmakes it possible to crowdsource complex testing tasksthrough games with a purpose. Collectively, these applications ofgamification have the potential to substantially improve softwaretesting practice, and thus software quality.