Abstract

Background. Technology growth observed in the last decades has a huge impact on the IT sector. Many public and private organisations decide to introduce various high-tech improvements based on the latest IT solutions to increase efficiency optimize processes, lower the costs, etc. The success of those actions strongly depends on a deep understanding of the project goal, identification of all the crucial stakeholders and their needs, limitations, organisation context and culture, and many more. To increase the success of the project it is important to make the communication between the principal and the performer as efficient as possible. Unfortunately based on various research studies and observations inefficient collaboration is one of the frequent reasons of the IT solutions implementation failures.

Research aims. The aim of this paper is to identify dysfunctions in the collaboration between the Product Owner and the development team and verify whether Gamified Agile - a set of tools based on Agile methodologies, simulation games, and gamifica-tion - could be a potential solution to it.

Methodology. In the first phase - identification of the main problems occurring in the collaboration between the Product Owner and the development team - literature analysis, interview, and participating and non-participating observations are used. In the second phase - verification whether Gamified Agile could be used as a tool to improve it - experiment, interview, participating and non-participating observations are used.

Findings. The experiment during which the Gamified Agile tool was used by 12 different teams in 10 companies during the retrospective, lead to conclusions that the set of tools can be used as an instrument to improve communication and understanding between the Product Owner and the development team in the daily work on the project in all of its phases. The positive results of experimental verification of the tool lead to the conclusion that the Gamified Agile can be used as an effective instrument that can support the Product Owner and the development team in improving collaboration between them.