During Agile Australia 2010, I teamed up with Phil Abernathy to present a variety of different team exercises and games. The session starts quite gently and builds up pace culminating in the Ball Point Game right at the very end.

1. Agile Team Games
Phil Abernathy
&
Kane Mar
Agile Australia 2010

2. Yes, but ... Yes, and
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3. Yes, but ... Yes, and
» Purpose: Explore the Art of the Possible
» Instructions:
• Form groups of 5
• Plan a party, starting each new sentence with
the words “Yes, but ...” (2 minutes)
• Plan a party, starting each new sentence with
the words “Yes, and ...” (2 minutes)
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4. Balloon game instructions
» Pre draw a balloon with a face on it
» Sit approx 10 per table
» Ask them to deliver as many balloons as they can in 5 min like the
pre drawn one
» Start 5 min count down
» Draw up chart for team scores
» Test rigorously and reject balloons that do not meet spec
» Update scores
» Talk about TDD ( 5min)
» Redo exercise
» Update scores ( should be better)
» Reflect and close out

5. TDD – Test Driven Development
» Elaborate with acceptance criteria
» Write test cases
» Build a test harness
» Write the (automated) test scripts
» Build the deliverable
» Run the deliverable through the test harness and
against the test scripts to see if it passes
» If YES – Yippppeee
» If NO – fix and re-try

6. Help me see it
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7. Help me see it
» Purpose: Explore communication and
collaboration
» Instructions:
• Form 1 large circle
• By going around the circle, create a fictional
character
• If you don’t find the fictional character credible
then you can challenge by saying “Help me see
it”
• The next 2 persons must help
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8. The Ball Point Game
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9. The Ball Point Game
» Purpose: Demonstrate the power of
inspection and adaption using a fun,
physical game.
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10. The Ball Point Game
» Rules
• You are all one big team
• Each ball must have air-time
• You cannot pass a ball to someone directly to
your left or right
• The end point must also be the start point
• Dropped balls are considered waste
• Each Iteration = 2 minutes
• Retrospective = 1 minute
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11. The Ball Point Game
» “Inspect and Adapt” in Scrum ... is a Deming*
cycle (PDCA) ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
PDCA
» PLAN: Design or revise business process
components to improve results
» DO: Implement the plan and measure its
performance
» CHECK: Assess the measurements and report the
results to decision makers
» ACT: Decide on changes needed to improve the
process
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12. Flow game instructions
» One pre built boat
» Lots of A4 paper and red and blue marker pens
» Sit them in long rows of 7 per team ( rest can be consultants per team)
» Assign roles ( biz, analyst, architect, developerx2, tester, business)
» Ask them to deliver as many boats as they can in 5 min like the pre built
one.
» They get 3 points per pair of blue and red boats, -1 per page not completed
» Start 5 min count down
» Draw up chart for team scores
» Update scores
» Talk about Pull and Flow( 5min)
» Redo exercise – consultants can give advice
» Update scores ( should be better)
» Reflect and close out

13. Theory of constraints
Every organization
has at any given point
in time at least one
constraint which
limits the system's
performance relative
to its goal
Dr. Eliyahu M.
Goldratt You can only deliver as fast as the
slowest part of your process

14. Increasing Throughput
Managing the
Little’s Law Reduce on-ramp
work in
progress
Work in progress
= Total cycle time
Avg completion rate
Removing
constraints
Increase
completion
Don’t overburden
rate

15. Lets apply some learning
» Some LEAN principles
• Identify bottlenecks and optimise
• Manage the on-ramp
• Eliminate waste
• Pull and flow
• Inspect and improve
» Some AGILE principles
• Collaborate
• Co-locate
• Self organising teams
• Testing, testing testing

16. Thank you
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