Composition of a Game Based Simulation for Software Development Process

Simulations are today very common and are used frequently for education, testing, research, development, gaming etc. No matter in what area it is used, it is used for the same purpose, to imitate a realistic event. With a simulation, certain factors are manipulated depending on what event is being simulated, like for example at a school for pilots, they use a simulator to imitate the flight. However, this report is not about flight simulators, but about how to proceed to develop a game, which simulates a certain software development project. By developing a simulation model, based on a specific software development model, that model could be implemented in a project game, this to give the player the possibility to control and steer certain events in the project and to vary the result of the game. Why can simulation enhance traditional software engineering? An important factor is that it provides insights into complex process behavior. Like many processes, software processes can contain multiple feedback loops, such as associated with correction of defects in design or code. Delays resulting from these effects may range from minutes to years. The complexity resulting from these effects and their interactions makes it almost impossible for human (mental) analysis to predict the consequences. Unfortunately, traditional process analysis does not shed much light on these behavioral issues, and the usual way to resolve them is to run the actual process and observe the consequences. This can be a very costly way to perform process improvement.