games

Marshmallow Challenge

by Chad on June 7, 2010

Last week I played the Marshmallow Challenge with the Program Manager in my area. Each month we have a department meeting and I asked for 30 minutes to conduct the PM challenge. I did not tell anyone what the challenge was because I assume they would go and research to get a leg up.

My goal was to get them to think about doing things more like scrum rather than the traditional waterfall process that they are use to.

So what I did was put all of the pieces into a yellow folder and then described the rules to them. From there I set up a timer and told them that the highest structure would win a prize.

At the end, each team tried to put the marshmallow on the top with about 3 minutes remaining and all 3 of the teams had no standing structure.

If you are looking for a fun game to help the learning of Agile I would strongly suggest the Marshmallow Challenge!

[slideshow]

{ 0 comments }

Read the full article...

Paper Airplane Game

by Chad on May 13, 2010

Today we did an exercise to see the benefits of setting Work In Progress Limits (WIP). The exercise is called The Airplane Factory Game.

http://www.agileway.com.br/2009/11/16/the-airplane-factory-game/

Here were our takeaways:

1)      If a new request is added, it is easier to complete it if we have balance and WIP limits.

2)      Having everyone work as fast as they can doesn’t work.

3)      We also had a good discussion about adding requirements to something that is just about done. It’s better to file a requirements defect and fix it right away rather then moving that feature back to do. Right now our team struggles with requirements changing just as we are about to complete a feature.

Overall, it was a good team building experience and a lot of fun. Plus we learned something we can use in our work.

{ 0 comments }

Read the full article...