Serious game approach to introduce the code review practice

Abstract

Code Review is an accepted and widely utilized software engineering practice that focuses on improving code via manual inspections. However, this practice is not addressed adequately in a typical software engineering curriculum. We aim to help address the code review practice knowledge gap between the software engineering curricula and the industry with a serious game approach. We determine our learning objectives around introducing the code review process. In order to realize these objectives, we design, build and test a serious game. We then proceed with a three-step case study with 280 students. We evaluate the results by comparing the students' knowledge and con dence regarding code review before and after the case study, as well as by statistically evaluating how well they did both in the code review quizzes and the game levels themselves. Our analysis indicates that, students have a positive approach regarding playing the serious game while the statistical results show that students improve their knowledge by playing the game. We conclude that our code review serious game had a positive impact on the students and is helpful for introducing the code review process. The game and materials for the case studies are made available online for educators.