Gamifying Scrum: an undergraduate thesis maps the literature and drafts guidelines for the field
Denniel Roriz Lima defended at FCTE/UnB an undergraduate thesis running a bibliometric and thematic review on the use of gamification in agile processes with Scrum, and proposing practical guidelines for implementation.
Brasília, July 22, 2025
There is a topic that, despite its recurrence on corporate shelves and academic pages, still lacks systematization: the marriage between gamification and agile software development. This is the territory that Denniel William Roriz Lima’s undergraduate thesis, defended in July 2025 at FCTE/UnB, sets out to map — advised by Prof. Cristiane Soares Ramos and co-advised by Prof. Ricardo Ajax Dias Kosloski .
Instead of proposing a ready system or a prototype, the author chose a narrative, bibliometric, and thematic review — a methodological choice that privileges the wide lens over the pinpoint zoom. The move is useful precisely because the field is recent and scattered: publications grow at a fast pace but with little consolidation on which gamification elements work, for which Scrum practices, and under what conditions.
Some of the review’s findings stand out. In both market and academic contexts, the ceremonies and artifacts most frequently gamified include the Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Definition of Done. The 6D Framework and Serious Games dominate the corporate side; approaches such as Board Games and Game-Based Learning appear more often in academic experiments. Points, rewards, and badges are the most recurrent elements — while collaboration, widely cited in academic papers, is barely explored in market environments.
The work also problematizes typical adoption challenges: sustainable engagement, intrinsic motivation, and the difficulties of applying techniques consistently. Finally, the author crystallizes a set of guidelines aimed at practitioners and researchers, weaving Gamification with broader concerns of software quality and process . It is the kind of work that reads like a compass: it does not exhaust the terrain, but helps decide where to start.
The thesis — written in Portuguese — is available at the UnB Undergraduate Theses Digital Library.
About CEDIS: The Center for Studies, Development, and Innovation in Software (CEDIS), linked to the University of Brasília, researches and develops innovative software solutions with strong presence in Gamification .