From anecdote to evidence: the relationship between personality and need for cognition of developers.

There is considerable anecdotal evidence suggesting that software engineers enjoy engaging in solving puzzles and other cognitive efforts. A tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful thinking is referred to as a person's 'need for cognition.' In this article we study the relationship between software engineers' personality traits and their need for cognition.

Gamification in software engineering: the mediating role of developer engagement and job satisfaction.

Gamification seeks to encourage behavior of participants by borrowing elements of games, such as scoring points. Few rigorous studies exist of gamification in software organizations, and several questions have remained unanswered, for example, what might drive developers to partake, and what are the consequences of developer engagement. This article seeks to provide some answers through a rigorous empirical study at one organization that created an internal gamification platform.