Gamification as a Tool for Increasing IT Project Team Efficiency

Master's thesis is devoted to the study of the impact of gamification on the IT project teams efficiency, as well as to identify the features of its implementation in the workflow. Project team is the basis for project management, as all project implementation work is carried out by its participants under the guidance of the project manager. Consequently, project team management is one of the most important project management processes together with other fields of knowledge about PM. A key characteristic of an IT project team is the autonomy of its members, which implies a high level of responsibility and self- organization. However, along with this common problem of such projects is the blurring of the responsibilities of the project manager and the rest of the team members, as well as a decrease in the effectiveness of communication between them. All this has a negative impact on the effectiveness of the team, and therefore, jeopardizes the successful completion of the project. To prevent this problem, it is necessary to take certain measures to unify the team, delineate the areas of responsibility and stimulate the motivation of each of its members. Gamification can become one of the tools for solving such a problem. The study consists of three stages. At the first stage, expert interviews were conducted to identify the main goals and patterns of application of gamification to IT project team management. At the second stage, a survey was conducted of managers and participants in IT project teams to identify their attitude to various aspects of gamification. At the third stage, a regression analysis of the survey results was carried out. Based on the results of expert interviews and questionnaires, a model of the impact of gamification on the efficiency of the work of IT project teams was proposed and recommendations for its implementation in the workflow were developed.