GetBadges.io allows for gamification of workflow for product development teams. Get badges was set up with IT and developer teams in mind. By linking the software to workflow tools such as Trello, slack, Jira, github and many more, individuals start unlocking badges as soon as they start completing tasks. Get badges comes with a good amount of in-built badges, so you can be up and running within a short space of time, just linking the tools together. From level 3 onwards teams start fighting a monster together. The monster can be set to be fought over sprints in agile processes or time frames that make sense for your business and workflow.
We have been testing the tool for a few weeks and love the fact that as a team we are fighting monsters with our every day normal work. We managed to get the basic integration going rather quickly and were earning badges and experience points easily. What is good to see that the company actively switching from the early motivation from badges to something more fun with fighting monsters. Not all tasks receive the same amount of fighting power and some events can be set to earn no or low points in order to discourage behaviour you don’t want your people to fall into like for example pushing code out too quickly without proper verification and testing.
The Game master who has admin right to the get badges system will be able to influence what happens in the game. They can rename, re-colour monsters, enter new monsters, adapt task impacts and experience points. Players can also create random monsters, when the game master has no live monsters lined up in the queue. Notification about player achievements is tracked in the company chat functionality.
We like the approach and will stick with fighting monsters for the foreseeable projects. It is refreshing to see this approach specifically aimed at software and product development teams. The option to vary the game is essential for the game master to observe.
