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Computer Science > Software Engineering

arXiv:2006.02371 (cs)
[Submitted on 3 Jun 2020 (v1), last revised 10 May 2021 (this
version, v3)]

Title:How Gamification Affects Software Developers: Cautionary
Evidence from a Natural Experiment on GitHub

Authors:Lukas Moldon, Markus Strohmaier, Johannes Wachs
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    Abstract: We examine how the behavior of software developers
    changes in response to removing gamification elements from
    GitHub, an online platform for collaborative programming and
    software development. We find that the unannounced removal of
    daily activity streak counters from the user interface (from user
    profile pages) was followed by significant changes in behavior.
    Long-running streaks of activity were abandoned and became less
    common. Weekend activity decreased and days in which developers
    made a single contribution became less common. Synchronization of
    streaking behavior in the platform's social network also
    decreased, suggesting that gamification is a powerful channel for
    social influence. Focusing on a set of software developers that
    were publicly pursuing a goal to make contributions for 100 days
    in a row, we find that some of these developers abandon this
    quest following the removal of the public streak counter. Our
    findings provide evidence for the significant impact of
    gamification on the behavior of developers on large collaborative
    programming and software development platforms. They urge
    caution: gamification can steer the behavior of software
    developers in unexpected and unwanted directions.

Comments: To appear in the proceedings of the 2021 IEEE/ACM 43rd
          International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE)
Subjects: Software Engineering (cs.SE); Computers and Society
          (cs.CY); Social and Information Networks (cs.SI)
Cite as:  arXiv:2006.02371 [cs.SE]
          (or arXiv:2006.02371v3 [cs.SE] for this version)
          https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2006.02371
          Focus to learn more
          arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite
Related   https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE43902.2021.00058
DOI:      Focus to learn more
          DOI(s) linking to related resources

Submission history

From: Johannes Wachs [view email]
[v1] Wed, 3 Jun 2020 16:35:47 UTC (1,532 KB)
[v2] Mon, 1 Mar 2021 09:44:34 UTC (1,539 KB)
[v3] Mon, 10 May 2021 14:36:19 UTC (1,540 KB)
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