Premortems in Game Development Teams: Impact and Potential
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
12-5-2023
Department
Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences
Abstract
Software design teams need methods to evaluate plans as part of agile development processes. The premortem is a cognitive, structured, analytic technique that supports team plan evaluation and re-planning. Few empirical or longitudinal studies involving premortems exist. Ten game development teams (n=68 members) conducted premortems early on during a year-long game development project. Teams provided initial ratings of their game design plan, then conducted a premortem, and revised their plans. In the premortems, teams identified 17.8 unique reasons on average for project failure and 16.7 mitigations to those failures. Reasons for project failure focused mainly on game design execution, team communication, and game complexity (e.g., too many levels, branching). While most teams identified solutions for these challenges, surprisingly few teams revised their plans to scale back the game design complexity.
Publication Title
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting
Recommended Citation
Roose, K. M.,
Lehman, B.,
&
Veinott, E.
(2023).
Premortems in Game Development Teams: Impact and Potential.
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting,
67(1).
http://doi.org/10.1177/21695067231193680
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p2/2201