A Comparative Study of Soft Skills Evaluation for Software Developers Using Video Games

Hard skills are those required for a particular job or industry, whereas soft skills are transferable and applicable across different roles and contexts. In teamwork, soft skills are essential to facilitate interaction among the members; they complement technical expertise and contribute to harmony and high-performing. Its evaluation is commonly based on self-reports such as questionnaires, interviews, or personality tests. However, self-reports are prone to bias due to factors like social desirability, a tendency to present an expected image, memory, or motivation. As an option, the observation of the individual's behavior can substitute or complement self-evaluations, but it is not easy and sometimes possible to set the appropriate observational environment. Therefore, video games are proposed as an alternative to create artificial situations that mimic real-life. This paper presents a comparative analysis of proposals to evaluate soft skills for software developers using video games. The research describes relevant factors, variables, and results of different proposals that assess individual and/or social situations. Results highlight the need to create new methods to conduct this type of analysis.