Assessment and Redesign of Ga-Starfish: A Gamified Strategy for Agile Retrospectives

Assessment and Redesign of Ga-Starfish: A Gamified Strategy for Agile Retrospectives | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Assessment and Redesign of Ga-Starfish: A Gamified Strategy for Agile Retrospectives Adriana Peña, Luz Marcela Restrepo-Tamayo, Gloria Piedad Gasca-Hurtado, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6986625/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 25 Mar, 2026 Read the published version in Software Quality Journal → Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Gamification has become a strategic resource for software engineering supporting motivation, engagement, and collaboration in software development teams. In agile teams, the retrospective, a recurring meeting at the end of each iteration, helps to inspect how the last sprint went, to identify what worked well and to create actionable items. In the retrospective sessions, gamification can enhance reflection to foster continuous improvement. This paper presents the evaluation and redesign of the gamified strategy Ga-Starfish, designed to guide agile teams through structured, motivational retrospective practices. Unlike traditional tools, Ga-Starfish focuses on non-technical factors influencing team productivity and incorporates gamification elements aligned with ten predefined principles from existing literature. A formal framework was applied to assess the degree of gamification by quantitative variables, supported by an interactive Shiny-based interface that automates calculations and generates visual reports. Results classified the strategy as partially gamified (32.98%), indicating a strong alignment with cognitive and reflective principles, but limited in the integration of motivational and engagement-driven components. As a result, a redesign was proposed using five Core Drives from the Octalysis Framework to enrich the strategy's motivational balance. This study constitutes a replicable methodology for assessing gamified strategies and demonstrates how theory-based redesign can improve alignment with agile team dynamics. Limitations are acknowledged regarding generalizability and empirical validation, which are addressed through proposals for future research. Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 25 Mar, 2026 Read the published version in Software Quality Journal → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 11 Nov, 2025 Reviews received at journal 28 Oct, 2025 Reviews received at journal 23 Oct, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 02 Oct, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 30 Sep, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 30 Sep, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 02 Jul, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 01 Jul, 2025 First submitted to journal 26 Jun, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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