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Communication and cooperation among stakeholders and developers is a critical
factor for success in requirements engineering [
1
], [
2
]. Usually studies in this field just
point to the problems, but a comprehensive set of tools or techniques for improvement
of communication skills is not given. This study contains summary of research in
which the authors use serious games approach [
3
], [
4
] for structuring the learning
content for strengthening communicational aspect of requirements engineering skills.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI)is used for stakeholder personality
analysis in order to form basis for learning – how to improve communications and overall
productivity in requirements engineering. The MBTI instrument is based on the
theory of personality types described by Carl Jung and Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine
Briggs [
5
]. This theory states that many of the valuable differences between people
are a result of natural preferences that everyone has for different ways of perceiving,
or taking in information, as well as for different ways of judging and making
decisions. If these natural differences can be understood and appreciated, working
relationships can be improved. Theory can help with:
Better understanding how people communicate with each other
Identifying possible sources of misunderstandings
Resolving or avoiding communication conflicts
Developing a more productive working relationships
In synthesis of MBTI with serious game framework a tool can be developed for
training communication skills in requirements engineering [
6
]. Military and
emergency services were the early adopters of serious games for training. Nowadays serious
games as training means are used in many different industries and are also utilized in
universities and schools [
4
]. While the characteristics of common computer games
and serious games are quite different, they both incorporate common game attributes,
namely, backstory and storyline. Every game has a backstory upon which the game is
based, and a story line that it follows, which can be referred as the rationale for the
game play. Serious games offer an additional value to traditional learning materials
and methods by allowing the student not only to learn, but also to apply the learnt
skills in practice.
We propose the following concept of the game. The content on particular
requirements engineering issues, such as knowledge to be acquired during business or
systems analysis tasks can be incorporated in the backstory of the game. Different
distributions of this knowledge among the virtual actors can be enriched by specific MBTI
categories-based knowledge delivery (speed, completeness, truthfulness),
externalization, visualization, and structure patterns. These patterns can be incorporated in the
storyline (see Fig. 1).
Thus the game may help to train the skills to choose right approach for specific
actor types (pure or combined categories), to recognize actor types, and choose
appropriate requirements engineering approaches in a given situation. The game
corresponding to this concept is intended as a tool for improving communication skills of
business and systems analysts, and thus can be useful in training requirements
engineers. Currently the game is at its conceptual development stage; the practical
implementation of the game is a matter of further research.