All Games

The following is a list of all the games in alphabetical order.

60 Paces
60 Paces is an interactive game illustrating the efficiencies of empowered self organizing teams.
99 Test Balloons
99 Test Balloons is an interactive game illustrating the importance of understanding customer needs, acceptance criteria and the value of test.
Alaskan Road Trip
Alaskan Road Trip is an Interactive game that illustrates the concept of planning on the horizon, rolling wave planning and progressive elaboration
Alphabet Game
The Alphabet Game is a classroom exercise for reinforcing concepts in and interactive way
Coin Sorting
Coin Sorting is an interactive game illustrating the importance of understanding customer goals and requirements
Collaborative Origami
Collaborative Origami is an interactive game illustrating the efficiencies of face to face communication in product development.
Doggy Planning
Doggy Planning is an interactive game illustrating Agile estimation techniques.
Example Please!
This Agile Game helps to prompt and establish an understanding how the values of Agile will and should impact a particular group or organization. The exercise is a complement to describing the general meaning and intent of these values which is still an important conversation. The intent intent here is to create understanding and self discovery for the participants in their environment.
Football Scrum
Foodball Scrum is an interactive game illustrating the practice of Scrum or Daily Standup Meetings.
Location, Location, Location
Location, Location, Location is an interactive game illustrating the importance of collaboration and co-location.
Making Pamphlets: Kanban Game

This is a game to understand some of the mechanics of Kanban such as balancing the work-in-progress, resource allocation, and waste management. Each team has to create its own Kanban board as they see fit and improve it as the game develops.


Map Flap
Map Flap is an excellent exercise to begin a Lean Value Stream mapping initiative. It highlights the need for understanding the value stream and the often disparate perspectives people bring to this mapping exercise.
Mr Happy Face
Mr. Happy Face is an interactive game illustrating the efficiencies of pull vs. push, Kanban and single piece flow.
No-one Listens to Me
No-one Listens to Me is an exercise that illustrates the importance of listening an awareness of our own internal monologue in conversations.
Packing Peanuts

This games gives people a great understanding of what Technical Debt is and why it is so costly to projects.


Pair Ping-Ponging
Pair Ping-Ponging is an interactive and productive work techniques to facilitate and explain the approach of TDD and Pair Programming.
People Polling
Demonstrate the wisdom of crowds and other agile estimating practices with this powerful experiment.
Picture Me
Picture Me is a classroom technique for reinforcing learning points.
Planning Poker
Planning Poker is an interactive technique to efficiently derive developer estimates without influencing individual estimators
Pocket-sized Principles
This is a great exercise to better communicate the twelve principles behind the Agile Manifesto. In their existing form, it is challenging for people to read and understand each principle and, just as importantly, to easily refer to them later.
Presto Manifesto
Unveil the true motivation behind the agile manifesto with this interactive and powerful group exercise.
Process Doodle
Process Doodle is a group activity that to facilitate discussion about how to improve processes and work practices.
Project Pinwheel

I've only conducted the exercise once with a group of technical managers and directors. The response was very positive, and now I can refer to this exercise when there is a need to trust and empower the team.


Question Game
The Question Game is a classroom exercise for reinforcing concepts.
Resort Brochure
Resort Brochure is an interactive game illustrating the flow of the Scrum framework
Sizing Game
The Sizing Game is a quick, easy, and playful way to categorize user stories in an agile project based on relative size.
Tangled Mess
Tangled Mess is an interactive game illustrating the importance of trust and team work. Trusting and empowering the team is quite often the most effective solution. Some team members will intentionally take advantage of the situation, invariably destroying the very trust that these exercises should be building. Take note of the alacrity with which these team members contact their lawyers.
Telephone Game
The Telephone Game can be used to illustrate the noisiness of communication and facilitate better communication.
The Backlog is in the Eye of the Beholder
Organization and prioritization are two distinct activities that can be used to improve the quality of a product backlog. A simple linear list is difficult to prioritize. As well, many stakeholders are forgotten in the rush to deliver customer value. See example list of stakeholders. The purpose of this Agile game is to expand the view of multiple stakeholders as well as illuminate the value of organizing the work without prioritizing.
The Problem with Principles
This interactive Agile Game and facilitation technique helps drive meaningful consideration and discussion on the principles and values of Agile.
The Story of Our Sprints
The Story of Our Sprints is a a facilitation technique for improving the value of Sprint reviews or iteration Lessons Learned.
The Train Game
The Train Game is an interactive game illustrating the efficiency of iterative and incremental development.
Theory of Constraints Dice Game
The Theory of Constraints Dice Game is an interactive game illustrating the concepts of constraints behind Eli Goldratt's the Goal
Thumb Wars
A simple children's game is used to illustrate the value of retrospectives, cooperation over competition, the value of specialization and scaling, as well as the lean concept of movement as waste.
We’re Having a Party
We're Having a Party is an interactive game illustrating the advantages of single piece flow over batch flow through a process. By taking a smaller set of requirements all the way to completion, you get something to the customer faster. Conversely, if all the requirements are processed at the same time, changes later in the cycle become more costly. Single piece flow is often faster then batch and queue. This is due to the fact that each cross-functional participant can take ownership of a module all the way to completion, reducing overall task-switching and hand-offs.
What Were They Thinking?
What were they thinking illutrates the challenge with communicating software requirements. In software, we are rarely creating something that already exists. So we are forced to communicate in imperatives and metaphors and, quite often, much is lost in translation.
Word at a Time Letter
Word at a Time Letter is an Interactive game focussing on dealing with the uncertainty of planning on the horizon, rolling wave and progressive elaboration.
You Are Not in Control
You Are Not in Control is an interactive game illustrating the efficiencies of self-organizing teams and contrasting with Command and Control.