Practicing Agile Skills with business simulation games and exercises

Agenda

1. Introduction2. How people learn3. Knowledge vs Skills4. Agile Games

Who We Are Ciklum is an award-winning global IT company with more than 13 years of experience in IT outsourcing. We recruit

from a pool of more than 40,000 IT specialists throughout the world to build your development dream team, working

closely with you to meet your needs from beginning to end. Since 2002, our 90-plus in-house recruitment specialists have

helped some of the biggest and most innovative brands hire and retain more than 2,500 developers in 11 locations across

Eastern and Southern Europe and Asia.

My profileNataliia Iatsenko

● Ciklum Project and Process Consultant● ICAgile Authorized Trainer● ICP Certified Professional● APM Project Management Qualification

More than 9 years of IT experience in such areas as QA, business analysis, defining business needs and opportunities, verifying solutions and processes, managing projects in portfolio and programs, coaching and applying Agile and Lean principles. Experience in building PMO guidelines and setting up processes from scratch, defining the most suitable SDLC for different business flows and teams.

How people learn 1. Acquire theoretical knowledge

2. Identify the general technique or method

3. Start practicing

4. Learn tips and tricks or identify them yourself

5. Practice more using different techniques

Knowledge vs Skills Knowledge refers to information, acquired by a person through books, media,

encyclopedias, academic institutions and other sources.

Skill refers to the ability of using information and applying it in a context.

Knowledge Skills

Can be shared Cannot be shared

Theoretical Practical

Knowledge vs Skills• Is it possible to become a professional in particular area without practicing?

• Do I learn by Reading vs by Doing?

Actions Skill?

Commit on Daily Basis Y/N

Build self-organized team Y/N

Setup meetings Y/N

Facilitate discussion Y/N

Resolve Conflicts Y/N

Knowledge vs Skills Matrix0 - no knowledge

1 - basic knowledge

2 - good knowledge and working competency

3 - good competency

4 - expert

Learning Pyramid

Learning from experienceTyping SMS while driving the car

Driver A Driver B

Week 1 Accident. Everything is OK

Week 2 No phone usage while driving the car Everything is OK

Week 3... No phone usage while driving the car Everything is OK

... ... ...

...Week 10 No phone usage while driving the car Accident.

Week 11 No phone usage while driving the car ?

Learning from experience(case with specific knowledge holder)

Scrum Team A Scrum Team B

Sprint 1 Sprint Failed, since Java Dev got sick. Sprint Succeed. No knowledge transfer plan.

Sprint 2 Pair Programming is introduced to share the knowledge

Sprint Succeed. No knowledge transfer plan.

Sprint N Pair Programming / Code Review / Product Documentation are in place

Sprint Failed, since Java Dev got sick.

Sprint N+1 ?

Instant gratification vs long-term benefits

Action Instant gratification Long term effect

Smoking Pleasure from nikotin Cancer

Saving money for the future

Less money More money

Physical Exercises It is hard Good health and shape

Cakes Tasty! Overweight

andUnit Test Increase project cost Decrease quality risk

Learning Curve

Experience with games

Competence = Knowledge + PracticesGame = Story + Rule + Play

Game is like a story with rules and action, emotion and experience.

You can forget some facts, you will not forget your experience.

Choose the game• What are your learning objectives (skills-matrix)?

• What issue you would like to highlight and discuss?

• How would you like to challenge your players, team etc?

• What is your capability (facilitator, time, place, number of people)?

Agile Games 1. Ballpoint Game2. Scrum Lego Game3. Scrum Simulation4. Business Value Game5. The power of open-ended requirements6. Kanban Pizza7. Marshmallow Challenge8. Paper Tower9. XP Game

10. Bottleneck. Theory of Constraints11. Elephant Carpaccio. Learn to split stories12. Multitasking Name Game13. Scrum from Hell

17

Ball Points GameDuration: 2 hours

Number of people: up to 10 people

Learning Objectives:

❖ Scrum Flow = Deming Cycle (plan, do, check, act)

❖ The power of Retrospective,

❖ The power of Face-To-Face сommunication.

❖ Being ready to experiment and accept the failure

❖ Сhallenge constraints and identify waste

❖ Pull&Push approaches

18

Scrum SimulationDuration: 2 hours

Number of people: up to 10 people

Learning Objectives:

❖ Wishful Thinking and Yesterday weather

estimation

❖ Backlog Priorities

❖ Managing Expectation

❖ Team reliability and predictability

19

Business Value GameDuration: 2 hours

Number of people: up to 10 people

Learning Objectives:

❖ Involve salespeople, product managers and

executives in an Agile improvement project

❖ Concentrates on Release Planning and the client

role.

❖ Clarify the concept of “Business Value”

❖ Define your organisation’s “Business Value Model”.

❖ Dealing with deadlines and dependencies?

20

Kanban Pizza Duration: 60-90 minutes with retrospective

Number of people: starting from 5 people

Learning Objectives:

❖ Experience how a Kanban system emerges from an

existing process

❖ Experience a whole Kanban system (as opposed to

focusing only on the Kanban board and related

mechanics)

❖ Understand that boards are context-dependent

❖ Understand the effects of limiting your Work in Progress

❖ Experience self-organization and adaptation

Time to practice

The power of open-ended

requirements ;)

www.ciklum.com