LEARNING BY DOING
Gamification and Simulation-Based
Training in Project Management
Denis Solan and Avraham Shtub
The Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Haifa 3200003, Israel
Gamification and project management
Who
likes to play games? Almost everyone. It’s fun and can bring a lot of benefit.
Gamification
is the application of game principles in non-game contexts in attempts to
improve engagement, productivity, and learning among others.
In their
book, The Gameful World, Walz
and Deterding stated: “Today, it is not people
escaping into the virtual world of games, but games escaping into everyday life”.
The
Gamification Revolution book by Zichermann and Linder states: “Gamification
presents the best tool humanity has ever invented to create and sustain
engagement in people. And the world’s best organizations—including Nike, SAP,
Pearson, Salesforce, Cisco, United Airlines, Microsoft, Target, Sporty,
Siemens, GE, IBM, McDonald’s, and hundreds more—are increasingly using these
techniques to challenge competitors, reimagine their strategies, deliver
unprecedented loyalty, and recruit, retain, and drive exceptional achievers and
innovators.”
Every year,
numerous projects are finished late, over budget, have failed to deliver scope
or have even cancelled due to bad estimates, change in environment,
insufficient resources, change in strategy, imprecise goals among others.
The need for
experienced, well-trained project managers and teams is growing fast. The number of undergraduate and graduate
programs that offer project management courses is a good indication, as well as
the number of books on project management and the number of case studies and
other teaching materials developed around the globe. Like many other fields, lectures, books and
case studies are not enough and on-the-job training is an important part of the
development of project management teams and project managers.
In some
fields, sophisticated simulators replace on-the-job training or reduce it to a
minimum while ensuring that the quality of training is the highest possible.
This is common, for example, in training pilots who spend many hours on
advanced simulators to save the high cost of actual flights. The cost of
on-the-job training in this case should also include the cost of risks
associated with mistakes frequently made by inexperienced pilots. In a similar way, training project managers
and team members on the job is expensive due to the high cost of mistakes done
by inexperienced managers.
This fast
development of theoretical knowledge, methodologies, tools and techniques for project
management was not accompanied by a similar progress in developing teaching and
training tools. Traditional teaching based on textbooks, articles and case
studies is still the backbone of most training programs in this area.
The
use of simulation in the learning process
Confucius
said: "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."
This is the
essence of Simulation-based Training (SBT). We must do things ourselves in
order to really understand them.
Simulation
has been used for training in a wide range of fields: In engineering, in
management of quality, in supply chain management, and in process
re-engineering. Empirical research expanded our knowledge of this training
approach presenting new ways of understanding and implementing simulation for
training. Today it is widely accepted that learning through simulation is based
on three pillars:
1.
learning from content — the dissemination of new ideas,
principles, or concepts.
2.
learning from experience — an opportunity to apply
content.
3.
learning from feedback — the results of actions taken and
the relationship between the actions and performance.
A well
designed simulator supports a process of action-based learning. Instead of
talking about different ways of doing things, simulators offer an opportunity
to try different ways of doing things without risking the consequences of doing
so in the real world.
Simulators
create an environment that requires the participant to be involved in a
meaningful task. The source of learning
is what the participants do rather than what they are told by the trainer.
Below are some
of the advantages of using simulations as a learning tool:
1.
Simulators
are characterized as tools enabling the acquisition of practical experience and
acceptance of an immediate response of the learned system to the user’s
decisions and actions.
2.
Simulators
offer a realistic model of the interdependence of decisions that the trainee
makes.
3.
Simulation-based
training reduces the gaps between the learning environment and the
"real" environment.
4.
Simulators
facilitate training in situations that are difficult to obtain in the
"real world".
5.
Simulations
promote active learning, especially at the stage of debates that arise because
of the complexity, interconnectedness, and novelty of decision-making.
As early as in
1993, it was noted that simulations develop critical and strategic thinking
skills. It was claimed that the skills of strategic planning and thinking are
not easy to develop and that the advantage of simulators is that they provide a
strong tool for dealing with this problem.
Specific
Example—The Project Team Builder (PTB) Training simulator:
The Project
Team Builder (PTB) is a training aid designed to facilitate the training of
project management in a dynamic, stochastic environment. The PTB provides high
fidelity by supporting the simulation of any (real or imaginary) project.
The PTB is
based on the following principles:
· A simulation approach — the PTB simulates one or more projects or
several work packages of the same project.
The simulation is controlled by a simple user interface and no knowledge
of simulation or simulation languages is required.
· A case study approach — the PTB is based on a simulation of case
studies called scenarios. Each case
study is a project or a collection of projects performed in a dynamic
stochastic environment. In some
scenarios the projects are performed under schedule, budget and resource
constraints. The details of these case
studies are built into the simulation while all the data required for analysis
and decision-making is easily accessed by the user interface.
· A dynamic approach — the case studies built into the PTB are
dynamic in the sense that the situation changes over time. A random effect is introduced to simulate the
uncertainty in the environment, and decisions made by the user cause changes in
the state of the system simulated.
· A model-based approach — a decision support system is built into
the PTB. This system is based on project
management concepts. The model base
contains well-known models for scheduling, budgeting, resource management and
monitoring and control. These models can
be consulted at any time.
· To support decision-making further, a database is built into the
PTB. Data on the current state of the
simulated system is readily available to the users; it is possible to use the
data as input to the models in the model base to support decision-making. Furthermore, by using special history
mechanisms the user can access data on his past decisions and their
consequences.
· User friendliness and GUI — the PTB is designed as a teaching and
training tool. As such, its Graphic User
Interface (GUI) is friendly and easy to learn.
Although quite complicated scenarios can be simulated, and the decision
support tools are sophisticated, a typical user can learn how to use the PTB
within an hour.
· An integrated approach — several projects can be managed simultaneously
on the PTB. These projects can share the
same resources and a common cash flow.
· Integration of processes: planning processes, executing processes
and monitoring and controlling processes.
All these processes are performed simultaneously in a dynamic stochastic
environment.
· Integration with other project management tools — the PTB is
integrated with Microsoft Project so that the users can export the data to
Microsoft Project in order to analyze the scenario and to support its decisions
with tools that are commercially available.
More information and videos on the
Project Team Builder simulator are available at
Research
based on the PTB™ was conducted at different universities around the
world among them are: MIT, Technion, Pennsylvania State University, Drexel
University and Australian National University.
SBT in a basic Project
Management COURSE
In the basic
project management course at the Technion, students attend lectures on project
management best practice methodology, tools and techniques, take project management
e-Learning course and manage simulated projects using the Project Team Builder training
simulator that models the project’s planning, analysis and execution processes.
The project management
course covers fundamental aspects such as scheduling, budget, scope, quality,
tradeoffs, planning, bottlenecks, resource allocation, cash flow, risks and
decision-making to improve students’ project management skills.
Using the Project
Team Builder training simulator, students, face questions regarding available
resources, time management, and project goals. The students learn how to
develop and test an efficient project plan.
Through the Project
Team Builder training simulator, students can take risks without suffering the
consequences they could face in the real world. Students can analyze trade offs within the Project Team Builder training
simulator, in order to see what challenges they may face and how one decision
can impact project results.
Uncertainty
is typical to the projects. This uncertainty leads to risks (and opportunities)
and to the need for proper risk management. Simulation-based training presents
a unique approach to the teaching and training of the management of the
projects in a risky environment where the cost of mistakes is negligible and
offers an opportunity to try different ways of project planning and executing
without risking the consequences of doing so in the real world.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
COURSE FOR SYSTEMS ENGINEERS
In the advanced
project
management course for systems engineers at the
Technion, a new approach was developed and tested: Using a gamification-based exercise
in addition to SBT, a game was developed to practice the principles in project
management in a competitive environment.
Based on the
students' survey analysis, combining simulation-based training and gamification
methodology, had a positive impact on student's project management learning,
and students
perceived the method of teaching as more innovative than a personal on-line
course exercise.
Following are
the advantages of the gamification and SBT in project management:
1.
Doing the gamification methodology exercise in project
management gives
students a better understanding of project management methodology and
challenges (personal and group learning).
2.
It seems that doing a gamification methodology exercise in project
management increases the
level of a student's achievement, interest, and engagement.
3.
Doing simulation and simulation results debriefed in class gives teachers a
better understanding of the student's difficulties and learning styles and
provides teachers immediate feedback for student’s project management
methodology learning.
As part of
the course, students take an e-Learning course (including videos and
assignments). The e-Learning course reviews project management principles and
how project management principles are implemented in the Project Team Builder
simulator.
The course
contains several exercises in which the student's task is to plan and execute a
single project based on scenario information. For each project the following
data provided: target cost and duration of the project, the distribution of the
duration of each task (deterministic or stochastic), the predecessors of each
task, resources and their availability.
The final
session is a competitive game in which the students are introduced to a market
with limited size, they are competing with other students (competitors), using
tradeoff between project cost, duration and performance (value). Their task is
to maximize profit by getting the product to the market as early as possible
with maximum benefit and minimum cost. The market share of each student (and
his profit) is a function of the time in which he finishes the new product
development project, the scope and quality of the new product developed in the
project and the results of the competition.
Feedback from
students
Early on in the course students
received predefined project information and had to decide on a strategy and an optimal
project plan using a tradeoff between project’s cost, duration and performance and to execute the predefined
project in a non-competitive environment using the Project Team Builder training
simulator.
During the gamification exercise
in class, students received the same predefined project and had to decide on a strategy
and project plan and to execute the predefined project in a competitive
environment given the market size while competing with other students, using the
Project Team Builder training simulator.
The results of the simulation
measured the following project performances, under a predefined objective function:
1.
Project profit (final cash).
2.
Project time duration.
3.
Project value.
We collected data from three
sources:
1.
Students’ project strategy, plan and results in a non-competitive
environment.
2.
Students’ project strategy, plan and results in a competitive environment.
3.
Students' surveys.
Based on the
students' survey analysis (see Appendix), majority of the students’ thought
that gamification-based exercise in addition to Simulation-based Training had a
positive impact on learning the project management tradeoffs and challenges.
Almost half of the students' thought that competition had a positive impact on
improving project’s plan and results, and almost one third of the students'
thought that competitors’ results influenced other students’ decisions,
project’s plan and results.
Project management
is a combination of art and science. It is the art of dealing with people in a
dynamic, frequently uncertain environment and the art of riding the learning
curve in a non-repetitive environment. It is the science of solving
hard combinatorial, stochastic problems of project planning, monitoring and
control under resource and budget constraints. Simulation-based Training
supports training in both aspects of project management. By adding gamificationto the course using the simulator that was used
for SBT, the art of project management can be practiced, and the science of
project management is mastered to plan, monitor and control projects.
Based on the project
management course at the Technion, a combination of Simulation-based Training
and gamification improves student’s engagement, productivity, and learning of theoretical
knowledge, methodologies and techniques for project management.
A combination of
simulation-based training and gamification can be used as substitute to on-the-job
training to advance project management education and practice, the development
of project management teams and project managers and to improve
project management knowledge, experience and skills.
Appendix
Students’
answers to the questionnaire
