Development of Software Engineering Business Board Game

Abstract

In recent days, software engineering has become a collaborative effort with others. Based on good communications, to control software development, skills for management of human resources, process, cash and others have become vitally necessary. To provide opportunities to learn such skills related to technology, we developed a board game called the Software Kaihatsu Game (SKG; Kaihatsu means ‘development’ in Japanese) in 2009. Students form teams to manage software firms, and assume roles as a Chief Executive Officer (CFO) or Project Manager. SKG has been used at the Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University, and at Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, Thammasat University, Thailand. It was also used for the training of business people in the software industry around Sendai City, Japan. This paper introduces the features, effects, and expected improvements of SKG.