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Timing:
45-60 mins
Ingredients:
- Pens & paper for all
- Business team, with shared domain responsibility. For example, the HR department or Sales team. You can have a mixture so long as there is overlap.
Recipe:
- Explain some basic workflow/process mapping mechanics and identify the Value Stream.
- Have each person (or groups of two or three depending on size of the audience) map the Value Stream identified above. Give 15-20 minutes to this activity and encourage discussion.
- Once completed, post each Value Stream Map on the wall and have all participants compare and contrast their results. There will almost certainly be differences.
- Then discuss the challenges with optimizing the business process to eliminate Waste (Muda) and improve Flow(Mura) when there is not a clear and consistent picture of the business process itself. Look for examples in the different maps provided that would lead to inefficient or potentially harmful improvements that might be attempted.
Other helpful hints:
If the maps provided are relatively consistent then the discussion is not warranted and a congratulation on the maturity of the group is all that is needed and you can move on to improving flow, eliminating waste and mapping future state.
Learning Points:
- It is not unusual for the people in an operational business unit to have very divergent perspectives of how the operation actually runs. It is particularly pronounced between management and frontline workers.
- A valid and real perspective of the Process Map is absolutely critical before beginning any discussion about how to improve it.
Posted by Mike McCullough
Credit:
This game kindly submitted by Angela Hlavka, President, iluminari Inc.VN:F [1.9.3_1094] Rating: 3.5/5 (4 votes cast)
Ingredients:
- Sizing board (a whiteboard or flip-chart or the like; divided into 5 columns: XS, S, M, L, XL)
- Timer
- A set of prepared stories
- A set of 5 X 3 cards
- Tape for attaching the cards to the board
Recipe:
Have the team stand-up in a half circle facing their sizing board.
Shuffle a deck of story cards and place them face down on a table in front of the sizing board. Place a timer next to the cards.
The game begins when the facilitator starts the timer, which is the signal for the first member to perform the following steps:
- pick the top card off the deck
- attach a piece of tape to the card
- read the story on the card out loud
- assigns the card to one of the five columns on the board (XS, S, M, L. XL)
- provide a reason to the group
- start the timer for the next player
It is important assigning the card to one of the five columns has to be the player’s own decision, without any external interference. This is why the player should provide the reason for his or her decision after the card has been assigned. If the player does not assign the card within one minute, the card will be assigned to the column in the middle. The player then restarts the timer for the next player.
After sizing the card, the player presents his or her reason. The reason may be based on expert knowledge, from past experiences, or observations from other projects. It is essential that the rest of the team observes and listens carefully to understand the overall context and development of the board. All other team members are therefore silent without discussions or judgment.
After a few rounds, there should be enough cards on the board to give the team members the option to, on their turn, move an existing card on the board into a different column instead of picking a new card from the deck. As before, the player reads the story out loud followed by a reason which supports the decision to re-size.
Once all user story cards are on the board and sized, each team member, on their turn, can either continue moving cards between columns or simply “pass” if they are satisfied with the current results. If a player does not make a decision within the one-minute time-limit, it will be interpreted as a “pass”.
The game ends when the pile of story cards is gone and every member of the team signals “pass”.
Challenges:
The biggest challenge in the beginning is the lack of a reference story – the Chihuahua (see Doggy Planning). Because no card has been assigned yet, the first player will not have something to compare his or her story to. And since the cards will be shuffled, we won’t know if the first stories are really small, medium, or large until we uncover more stories. This is OK and and important lesson of the game. Every player will have the opportunity to change their mind in future rounds, so the important thing is to just get started. Remember, the game does not stop until all players signal “pass”.
It is quite typical that two or more players disagree about a few assignments, and the card may end up endlessly moving up and down the board. If this happens, just take the card and place it on the bottom of the deck. That way, the sizing can continue and the card should have more context after all the other cards have been sized.
Learning Points:
- Group user stories according to their relative size/effort
- Reach a democratic consensus quickly
- Ensure that each team member has a say
- Learn how user stories are captured
- Actively collaborate in a fun way
Variations
- Play with 3 (S,M.L) columns instead of 5 (XS, S, M, L. XL)
- Begin with 3 columns until the team requests more granularity, then the moderator adds additional columns
- Assign the Fibonacci sequence to the columns (1,2,3,5,8)
CREDIT: Jochen Krebs
VN:F [1.9.3_1094] Rating: 4.2/5 (5 votes cast) This post was submitted by Don McGreal.
Timing:
20-40 mins
Ingredients:
- Paper, pens, whiteboard and markers
Recipe:
Briefly review the four value statements from the Agile Manifesto.
One at a time for each statment ask the group to write down an example (60 -90 seconds). In turn have everyone read their example aloud. Ask the group to choose the example they like best, write it on the board (two is fine if there is a split or close call).
Learning Points:
- 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.
- Begins the establishment of a new set of norms since these are examples of behaviour that the team has defined.
- For a coach new to an organization this can also help you better understand the challenges a team and organization will face culturally and systemically.
Posted by Mike McCullough
VN:F [1.9.3_1094] Rating: 4.0/5 (3 votes cast)
Timing: 10 mins
Ingredients:
- A good-sized audience – 10 or more (the bigger the better)
- Pens & paper for all
Recipe:
It is best to sneak this exercise in when it is least expected.
Start by selecting something in the room that is not easily counted or estimated. Take the time to write the exact number down and hide it from the audience.
Then, have each individual quickly and privately write down their own estimate.
Gather all of the estimates and calculate the average.
Cross your fingers and unveil the number that you wrote down earlier. It should be relatively close to the group average.
I have done similar exercises about a dozen or so times and the results are usually spot on. However, there is always a chance that the results could be off, so always make sure to start by announcing that you want to perform an experiment together. Participants will understand if the results are not perfect.
Some things you can use to estimate:
- Your weight – although people tend to be generous and the estimates are usually low.
- Number of books available on Amazon.com
- Number of words on a page – I’ve had the most success with this one. In a class environment, I’ll use the lab write-up and have the students write their estimate on the back.
- Number of steps it takes to walk from one side of the room to the other – this one is fun, but you could get accused of rigging the outcome.
- Balloons in the room – only works if you played the 99 Test Balloons game earlier.
- Please leave a comment to share some of your ideas and experiences.
Other helpful hints:
- To keep things quick, open a spread sheet to type in everybody’s estimate as they show them to you. This also makes it easy to calculate the average in front of everybody.
- Analyze the data with the class. You will likely get a very wide variance. I often find that no one individual estimate is as close as the average. This speaks to the true wisdom of the crowd and of the importance of diversity.
- To make it even more interesting, give a prize to whomever had the most accurate estimate.
Learning Points:
- The accuracy of the group estimate is usually stronger than any one individual’s.
- The larger and more diverse the crowd is, the better the estimate.
- Agile embraces this principle by involving the whole team in estimating and planning and by encouraging the creation of cross-functional teams.
VN:F [1.9.3_1094] Rating: 4.7/5 (6 votes cast) This post was submitted by Don McGreal.
Timing: 30-60 mins
Ingredients:
- Whiteboards
- Markers
- Set of four coloured sticky notes for each player
Recipe:
Begin by reviewing the four value statements from the Agile Manifesto. Draw on the whiteboard a matrix of complexity on the vertical axis and impact on the horizontal axis with a scale of low, medium and high. Draw out all 9 resulting boxes of the matrix.
Assign a colour (one of the four sticky note colours) to each of the four statements in the manifesto.
Ask all particpants to place each of their four stickies into the appropriate place on the matrix based on their assessment of the impact and compexity the value statement it represents.
Encourage discussion amongst players while placing their sticky notes.
Once completed review what the group has assessed as the impact and challenge of adopting the value system implied by the Agile Manifesto
Learning Points:
- Reinforces and drives meaningful discussion about the Values and Principles of Agile
- Facilitates the discussion about what Agile means to the team and organization.
- Set’s the stage for understanding the purpose and intent of Agile practices and techniques.
Posted by Mike McCullough
VN:F [1.9.3_1094] Rating: 4.0/5 (4 votes cast)
Timing: 10 mins
Ingredients:
- Whiteboards and/or flip-charts
- Markers
Recipe:
Begin by defining what success on a software development project means. Is it only about being on time and on budget? What about customer satisfaction?
Divide the participants in to groups and ask them to, based on their project experiences, come up with a list of criteria that they have noticed as critical elements on successful projects.
Ask them to reach a consensus within their team and have each member sign off on the criteria they agree with.
Look for patterns between each team’s list and then discuss. Compare each teams list with the list that the 17 signatories of the agile manifesto came up with.
You will be surprised at the results, regardless of the participants experience with agile. You will rarely see any team come up with prescriptive practices and I have yet to come across a list that did not include customer collaboration, communication, and team dynamics.
Learning Points:
- The agile manifesto is a set of factors that are considered common on successful projects.
- These successful factors are not entirely new to our industry.
- The agile manifesto does not prescribe specific practices, reaching a wide consensus on these would be very hard.
VN:F [1.9.3_1094] Rating: 4.4/5 (5 votes cast) This post was submitted by Don McGreal.
You can now submit your own game to tastycupcakes.com Go to blog.tastycupcakes.com/game/ and share your games with the world.
We have just introduced rating of games at blog.tastycupcakes.com. Now you can provide your feedback on games and techniques provided.
We look forward to your feedback.
Timing: 20 mins
Ingredients:
- Board (electronic or on white board)
- 20-30 Clues
Directions:
Divide the participants in to teams and select someone to choose the first clue category and dollar value. Read the clue out loud and have participants ‘buzz in’ by raising their hands. A correct response adds the corresponding dollar value to their teams total, while a wrong response subtracts the same amount and leaves the clue open for other teams to ‘buzz in’. A response must be in the form of a question! The person who last responded correctly, selects the next clue. A hidden ‘secret clue’ will allow the team that selected it to wager as much money as they want. The team with the most money after all the clues have been read wins.
Learning Points:
- This is a fun and competitive way to review materials.
Posted by Mike
VN:F [1.9.3_1094] Rating: 3.0/5 (3 votes cast)
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