The game can be played with 3 to 6 players. If you want to play a competitive game, use two teams instead, each with their own deck of cards, and after each round, note points earned for each team.

Material

You need

• a deck of cards (normal playing cards)
• a piece of paper
• a pencil
• these game rules

Game preparation and the first round

Remove the jokers and any other special cards, shuffle the deck of cards and take one card for each player in the team. Put it face up on the table. These are the task cards.
Each player will now decide which cards he will try to score. He can choose to score on 1, 2 or 3 cards. Players tell each other what cards they will try to score this round.
Then hand three cards to each player, face down. These are the scoring cards. From the moment the scoring cards have been handed out, players cannot change their mind about what task cards to score on, neither change the number of task cards to score on.

Every player in turn will now put cards next to the task cards as follows:

• when the player announced one task card to score, he puts all three cards next to this task card.
• when the player announced two task cards to score, he puts two cards next to one of these task cards and the other scoring card next to the other.
• when the player announced three cards to score, he puts one scoring card next to each task card.

Players can see the faces of the scoring cards, so they can make decisions about what combinations would be best.
Also, players cannot give information about their cards or their strategy before it is their turn.

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The round score

After each player has put his cards on the table, the round score is calculated.

• If a task card has a face value between 1 and 5 (included), it needs one card from the same suit next to it to score.
• If a task card has a face value between 6 and 10 (included), it needs two cards from the same suit next to it to score.
• If a task card has a jack, queen or king as value, it needs three cards from the same suit next to it to score.

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After the round

After each round, count the score (one point per task card that can be removed) and remove the task cards and their scoring cards. Put the cards back to the deck, below the cards that were still there, if any.
Note the score and the total number of task cards for that round on paper.

Next, the players can vote whether to increase the number of task cards for the next round, to decrease, or to keep the same number.

Exception: the number of tasks for a given round cannot be below the number of task cards that were kept from the last round. For example, if no point was scored in a round with four task cards, participants cannot decide to decrease the number of task cards to three.

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The next round

The next round starts. Add task cards until the number agreed on is reached. Hand out three cards to each player and repeat the steps above.
Exception: if there are not enough cards in the deck to give every player three cards, hand out two cards (or one, if it is not possible to give each player two). During that round, players can score on only two (or one) cards.
Stop after round 10. Note down the total score and try to improve this score the next game. For the first games, you should be able to score about 7 points per player.

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The link with lean and Kanban

• Task cards are tasks: some are hard, some are easy, all must be done
• Scoring cards are people’s attention and energy
• The rounds are days
• The number of task cards on the table is the WiP limit

Despite the fact that use cases have been around for ages (in computer terms, that is) and that user stories already celebrated their tenth birthday, lots of confusion remains about what a user story is and how it relates to traditional use cases. In this presentation, I try to clarify to what extent use cases and user stories are similar, and how they are different.

Following topics are discussed:

• use cases and the “striped trousers” model
• why agile projects cannot always work with use cases
• the classical way of putting user stories (As a … I want to … so that I can …) – but remember, user stories are essentially free format!
• the INVEST checklist for user stories
• how user stories relate to the striped trousers of use cases
• user stories as a promise to talk
• how exceptions developers come up with are handled

What is Fruit Estimation Poker?

Compare it to planning poker, but with fruit instead of Fibonacci numbers. Also, instead of 13 cards (0,1,2,3,5,8,13,20,40,100,?,coffee cup) we have only nine:

• Cherry: really small.
• Strawberry: small. Used as the yardstick.
• Kiwi: medium
• Orange: bit bigger than medium.
• Grapefruit: rather large.
• Melon: very large. Please slice it.
• Fruit blender: could contain anything. Please clarify the item before you make me estimate it.
• Toilet paper: enough fruit! Please give me a break.

How to play Fruit Estimation Poker?

But then how can you determine how many items to tackle in a sprint?

• For the first sprint, like with planning poker, use gut feeling. Start with the low hanging fruit  (if any) and keep adding items to the selected product backlog until you feel you can just eat it all in one sprint.
• Keep a list of “reference fruit” and consumed hours: for every fruit type except melon, have a low, normal and high number of hours that were actually consumed by this fruit type. For example, for your team, strawberry can mean 4h – 8h – 14h. Continually update this list and use the actual figures and the capacity estimate for a sprint to determine how much fruit to put in the basket. You can then even make strong commitments for some items (“yeah, we’re pretty sure we can do these three oranges and the kiwi, and we think we’ll be able to fit in the grapefruit as well, while we know that it is very unlikely that we will finish this kiwi as well”).
• Of course you could also switch to an agile method that does not prescribe sprints, like Kanban…You could then track lead times per fruit size, for example.

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Download Fruit Estimation Poker

Fruit Estimation Poker can be downloaded here for free. The zip file consists of 10 png files, each with a different color so as to keep the cards apart for every participant. Print the files, glue them to heavy paper, plastify, cut them out and play! If you like Fruit Estimation Poker and you want to share it with others, please link to this website.

Those who are familiar with the Open Space concept will know that the motto is “Prepare to be surprised”. This year, it’s the first time we will work with a theme. As a first theme, we chose “agile games” because we believe games are the best way to teach about agile concepts. The XP Game, the Business Value Game, the Frog Factory, Werewolf,… games like and more will be played, analysed and reviewed during the two-day meeting.

Be sure to bring your own!

Of course, since the Agile Open is an Open Space meeting, there is room for other topics too!

All information on http://www.agileopen.net/agile-open-belgium-2011

The XP Days 2010 are over, but these two video’s will tell the story forever.

The movie

XP Days 2010 part 1 – day one

XP Days 2010 part 2 – day two

Sven and I presented the Frog Factory to an audience of 25 agilists. We’re happy to hear feedback from you all! Please use the feedback button at the bottom of this page.

PS. For those who like the game of werewolf, I can assure you it’s even better when played via email. Some of the articles on this site are in English, some in Dutch. Apologies to non-Dutch speakers. Topics of interest include werewolf rules, werewolf via email, werewolf probability and variations on the rules.

To win the contest, I need you to vote for me. So if you consider me a friend, or you find this blog useful, or you simple need something from me (wink, wink), please vote for us before 2010, June 14th (the Monday after the elections here – hope you are not bored of voting by then).

Here’s how to do it:

• If you don’t already have one: make a YouTube account: www.youtube.com. Wait for the confirmation email, then activate your account.
• Log in and surf to the PMI Agile Group: www.youtube.com/group/pmiagile. Make yourself a member of this group. Wait a few moments and refresh with F5. Don’t continue until you see you’re a member of this group.
• Click on the video Agile @ SD Worx and watch it (if you’re into agile, it’s fun and you’ll probably learn something)
• Click “I love it” and refresh. If you did not see the counter increase, vote again.

Thanks!

Update: we came in second and our entry has been published.

je krijgt meer dan 2 GB gratis webruimte die zich in de achtergrond synchroniseert met de computers waarop je werkt.

De voordelen zijn niet moeilijk te raden maar wel vérstrekkend:

• Je hoeft geen mails meer naar jezelf te sturen om een bestand op meerdere computers te hebben. Bovendien werk je altijd met de juiste versie
• Je kan heel gemakkelijk folders delen met anderen. Handig als je in groep aan iets werkt.
• Je kan ook individuele bestanden delen.
• Er is een foto-modus: gewoon wat foto’s naar de map kopiëren en de link doorsturen.
• Je hebt als het ware een gratis backup, want alle bestanden worden gesynchroniseerd op meerdere computers.
• Zolang je netwerktoegang hebt, heb je geen USB-sticks meer nodig.
• Stel: je bent op reis. Dan kan je bv in een internetcafé foto’s opladen en je geheugenkaart vrijmaken. Of bestanden raadplegen die je in je dropbox hebt gestopt.
• Best van al: dropbox gedraagt zich als een gewone map op je computer. Je moet dus niet inloggen en dergelijke om van de service gebruik te maken, dat gebeurt allemaal in de achtergrond.
• Je kan ook kiezen om Dropbox niet op je computer te zetten, maar om enkel van de webdienst gebruik te maken.
• Je moet geen persoonlijke informatie prijsgeven. Gewoon een username en paswoord volstaan.

Dropbox is snel, functioneel, gratis en rechttoe-rechtaan. Zoals ik het graag heb.

→ Intekenen kan op https://www.dropbox.com

This is indeed the basics for any succesful Kanban. But why are these two principles the driving force behind Kanban? And how can we teach people these basics in a way that they understand the principles, not only know them by heart?

A two hour game

That is what the Kanban Game accomplishes.In a relatively simple game that takes two hours, participants are stimulated to discuss and understand the underpinnings of Kanban, helping them to become more agile and ultimately more succesful in their business.

The game takes place in five rounds, each focusing on a specific topic:

Keeping the team scores during the kanban game

• Round 1: solving bottlenecks to obtain smooth flow. Work-in-progress limits to help solve bottlenecks.
• Round 2: market variability and agility and the value of stock.
• Round 3: the effect of training: deeper expertise for optimal flow. Broader expertise to limit dependency on disturbances.
• Round 4: process disturbances and how to obtain smooth flow even in unstable environments
• Round 5: kanban, the big picture. How to transfer what we have learned to the real world.

Apart from these five specific topics, following topics will be brought up during the discussions more than once:

• Visualising workflow: why it is important and why it is equally important to keep the visualisation in synch with reality
• Importance of communication and island work versus team work
• Expertise in the head and hands of a limited number of people
• FTE: are people just “resources”? is “adding people” a way to achieve higher production?

Besides that, participants will gain an in-depth knowledge about origami frogs

Free download

The Frog Factory – a Kanban game can be downloaded and used for free. However,

• when you want to share the game with others, please only link to this website. Regularly, new versions will be published so don’t copy the files.
• When you use the game, please give me feedback (agile is all about quick feedback, remember?) so that I can improve the game. Also, ideas for extensions and the like are welcome. Do use the comment button below this page.
• The software and material is provided as is, without any warranty. Use it at your own risk. For example, if playing this game changes your beliefs about how to run complex business processes, don’t blame me.
• Also, honor my copyright. Constructing and improving this game has been lots of work and I provide it for free, so please at least refer to this website when using the game. Posts about the game on other websites are encouraged!

Practicalities

• the game can be played by 6 to 20 people, divided in two equal teams. If the number of participants is odd, a correction applies (automatically calculated by the spreadsheet) apart from the teams, there is one instructor and if possible, an assistant.
• you need a suitable room with a whiteboard, if possible two computers and a beamer, per participant about 12 square origami papers in three colors and four bins per team (any recipient is okay as long as you can put some paper frogs in it)
• room setup: project the spreadsheet with the results and use the other computer for the counter. Put it in the middle so that teams can see the progress of the rounds. There is also a sound signal so constant visual contact with the timer is not needed.

→ Download the FrogFactory (zip file, 1 MB, no installation necessary – just download, extract and access the files via Explorer)

What’s in the zip file

 

 

Visualising work in progress

Basically, almost everything you need is provided:

• the instructor’s manual, of which you need one copy.
• the frog construction manual, which you need to copy once per team
• the experience sheet, for which you need one copy per participant
• the spreadsheet to keep the points
• a template for a big six sided die (of course you can also use a normal die if you don’t want to make a die with cardboard and glue)
• Separate download: the frog counter application that keeps the timing of the rounds

Note
Thanks to Sven, Serge, Peter, Christophe, Kurt, Bart, Annemie, Gunther, Griet and Nadine for volunteering to test the first version of the game.

See also this post about a Kanban game.

As a coach, your role is probably a “chicken” role (remember? Pigs and chickens can attend, but only pigs can talk?) So you have to be silent, but that does not mean you’re not active. In fact, this is your best opportunity to listen actively. That is, to try to understand the true meaning of what is being discussed so that you can coach the scrum master and the team so that they become even more effective and efficiënt.

Team Interaction Picture

One little tool I have found useful when coaching a team is something I call the Team Interaction Picture (TIP). It’s easy to draw, yet you can learn a lot from it.

Here’s an example. (it’s fictitious but representative of the actual TIPs I make when observing a daily standup meeting–and every single element is based on real TIPs).

The Team Interaction Picture: an agile coaching instrument

Rainy day

It’s 2009 November 23d (a gray Monday morning) and the team has gathered around the task board in the corner of the landscape office. The place is not ideal: somewhat too small, and there is a pole and a chair which hinder access to the board and invite team members to sit down/hang around. Luckily, the team has discussed this before and nobody will use the chair.

TIP technique: draw the task board as a narrow rectangle, the team members as circles (indicate their name and if needed, their role). For absent team members, draw a striped line outside the team. Also draw any other large objects (like the pole and the chair) present.

Usually, the meeting starts at 9h30 but now they’re six minutes late because Sandy is not there yet (you know she has to bring her daughter to school).

Sandy arrives

Finally, Sandy arrives. She has had a phone call from Nancy, who is ill and won’t return before Wednesday. Sandy joins the team (they’ve already gathered around the board!) and starts with giving an update on the impediment list.

TIP technique: write date and hour of start next to the TIP diagram. Indicate the order of events with numbers and indicate the end of the standup meeting under the event list. Use the same number to indicate in what order each attendee takes the word.

Eight constructive minutes

When Sandy tells the team an old and important impediment will be solved today, Dave interrupts and says that he hopes this will be the case, since he remembers Sandy promised this the week before, and the week before that… Then there is a short discussion between Sandy and Dave, which they conclude not to continue here.

TIP technique: when person A adresses person B, draw an arrow from A to B. If B responds, draw the arrowhead next to person A. For each next discussion between A and B, draw a small perpendicular line on the arrow from A to B.

The meeting continues in a constructive way and after eight minutes, everyone is up-to-date and knows what to do for today.

Coaching the scrum master

After the meeting, I’ll have a brief word with Sandy. I ask her opinion and we compare. Here’s how I use the TIP:

• General conclusion: a constructive meeting that respected the 15 minutes timebox (even if it started late, no problem here because even then the meeting ended before 9h45).
• Is it possible to remove the chair so that there is more space and better access to the board? Maybe, but Sandy will talk about the idea in tomorrows standup.
• Starting with the update on the impediment list (especially if there is good news) is a good practice. It helps to prove to the team that the scrum master is there to help them, not to command&control.
• Team dynamics are determined for a large part by the interaction of Dave and Sandy. Sarah occasionally tries to interrupt, but Sandy does not answer.
• Jeff, a junior team member, never takes the word unless he gets the talking stick. Even then he does not really talk, he just indicates on the task board what user story he will work on and that’s it.

Especially the last two topics might be sensitive, since they can indicate there’s an underlying problem. It’s dangerous to draw conclusions from one eight-minute meeting, so I would compare my TIP with the TIPs of two or three other meetings.

But in any case, I have a good graphical representation of what happened during this standup meeting. The team might even be able to use my TIPs during the evaluation meeting so that they can see how they interact.

For readers who use this TIP: please share your experiences by replying to this post. Thanks!

The goal of the Triastorm technique is to find novel ideas, to solve problems. It relies on the scientific study of problem solving, but Triastorm defines a pragmatic and simple process practictioners can use for business or everyday life, in group or individually.

In the future, software will be made available to support the triastorm technique.

The Triastorm breaks down the problem solving process into four processes:

• Generate ideas: the problem solver starts with five or more ideas. It is important that these are as diverse as possible. They may be partially adequate or totally defunct. During later cycles of this process, the problem solver will combine solutions to fill up the solution space.
• Elicit dimensions: This process helps in exploring the solution space, thereby guiding the problem solver in his search for adequate solutions.
• Rank dimensions: Establishing the relative weights of the dimensions found during elicit dimensions is useful to explore the solution space efficiently. Efficient exploration can be done by visualising the two or three most important dimensions, then indicating the part of the solution space most likely to yield good solutions.
• Position ideas: This process places the ideas in the solution space, thereby discovering gaps and thus potential for new ideas. It also helps in discovering which parts of the solution space are unlikely to generate adequate ideas.

At the end of each cycle, the problem solver chooses the process used in the next cycle, until the problem is solved or time runs out, in which case the best ideas may be used as input for a new Triastorm session.

The name of the Triastorm technique derives from two important aspects used:

• Triadic elicitation to explore the solution space
• Brainstorming to generate a wide range of ideas

Before you start a Triastorm session

To use the Triastorm technique with success, it is necessary to define the problem as precisely as possible. Don’t confuse your goal with the means to reach it: this way you constrain yourself and make novel solutions less probable.

For example, suppose you want to become famous. It is better to state as problem description “how to become famous” than “how to become famous by writing a book”. If your problem is that you want to write a book but don’t know how to begin, state “how to write a book” as your problem description.

Use GERP as your first cycle: first generate five or more ideas, then elicit one or two dimensions, then rank the dimensios, then position the ideas on the dimensions.

You need a few index cards, a piece of paper, and a pen. In case you have the Triastorm software, that and a computer is all you need.

Process 1: Generate ideas

When you first cycle through generate ideas, quickly write five or more ideas down—one per index card, and number them starting from 1. These ideas can be

• Solutions you already tried (but which failed)
• Ideas that seem fruitful but lack a few things to make them perfect
• Outright silly or bad ideas

It is more important to have a rich set of ideas than to search for the perfect idea in this stage. The ideas generated in this stage will largely serve to construct the solution space.

When you cycle through generate ideas in a later phase of the Triastorm session, combine existing ideas to generate new ones. Do keep looking out for totally new ideas, however.

Also, take a look at the visual solution space and try to fill in gaps. For example, in figure 2 the lower right quadrant is still empty. You can try to

• Contrast: find ideas that are the opposite of the empty quadrant (in this case, the opposite of idea 2)
• Combination: combine ideas from neighbouring quadrants (in this case, 4 or 6 combined with 1, 3 or 5).

When you have already gone throuhg elicit dimensions, consider to perform position ideas with the newly generated ideas now.

Process 2: Elicit dimensions

Knowing which dimensions structure the solution space is important because this will guide your search: you won’t lose time by summing up ideas that won’t work and don’t bring any new insights. 

Triastorm uses triadic elicitation: select three ideas in a random way (by turning the index cards and shuffling them). When you have just performed generate ideas, you are allowed to select one new idea instead of a random idea from the list.

Now select the one out of three which is different from the others and state the difference.

For example, suppose the three items selected are “write a paper”, “give a speech” and “convince a local newspaper to interview me”. You could then select the last one to be different from the others, because in that case, you don’t compose the text yourself. The dimension would then be expressed as “do it yourself” versus “get help from others”.

Some dimensions can be expressed as a single term (for example, “amount of work”), others are more conveniently described with two opposite terms. Both ways are fine.

From the moment you have two dimensions or more, select the two most important ones with rank dimensions and visualise them by drawing a quadrant like figure 2.

In each case, try to find new dimensions. Don’t get stuck on the ones you already found. If you can’t find a new dimension because of the three ideas you selected, skip this step.

Process 3: Rank dimensions

After you’ve gone through elicit dimensions, you can start rank dimensions. That way, you will concentrate on the most important dimensions when searching for solutions.

Ranking can be a simple matter of putting them in a list, the most important ones at the top. Important here means that the dimension is likely to make a difference between good and bad ideas.

Typically, you will keep two dimensions to focus on (which can change during the Triastorm session). Visualisation of two dimensions is easy, visualizing more is more difficult unless you use a computer program.

A second activity in this process is constraining the solution space by delimiting dimensions.

On the quadrant diagram, use color to indicate delimiters of dimensions so you can effectively visualize the part of the solution space most likely to yield useful ideas. If your idea list contains the current, nonworking solution, that part of the solution space is likely to be in the nondelimited zone.

Don’t delimit a dimension if that is not necessary: if the value of an idea on the dimension does not matter for its quality, leave the dimension unconstrained.

Example of delimiters on a dimension: if you discover that the solution has to be cheap to carry out, delimit the dimension “price” by coloring the “cheap” part of the solution space.

If multiple dimensions have delimiters set, the solution space becomes narrower and focused. This guides the problem solver to that part of the solution space that contains the best ideas.

Process 4: Position ideas

The fourth and last Triastorm process is position ideas on the dimensions you elicited. You can choose a scale that is convenient for you, though usually you don’t need more than five marks on each dimension (–, -, 0, +, ++).

The importance of this process is to indicate the gaps in the solution space: those parts that are delimited but still empty. It can also help to generate new ideas by indicating which ideas need to be combined or contrasted.

Use this tool when brainstorming individually. Use small pieces of paper to note ideas and dimensions and place them on this printed sheet.

When generating new ideas, be sure to position them regularly. Also, after each cycle of elicit dimensions, position the current ideas on the newly found dimensions.

Triastorm in practice: an example

The problem

As an example, we’ll tackle a well-known problem: “How to make business meetings start on time in our organisation?” You might find this exercise fun and useful to repeat. The outcome will differ because it is specific to your organisation.

First cycle: Generate ideas

• (1) Be angry at latecomers
• (2) Offer a drink at the beginning of the meeting
• (3) Discuss the most important things first
• (4) Send extra invitations before the meeting
• (5) Send an SMS to latecomers at the time of the meeting

Second cycle: Elicit dimensions

These three ideas were chosen randomly to extract the first dimension:

• (1) Be angry at latecomers
• (3) Discuss the most important things first
• (5) Send an SMS to latecomers at the time of the meeting

I chose to group 1 and 5 on the one hand, 3 on the other hand. 1 and 5 both confront the latecomers directly, while 3 does so indirectly. The dimension is called “directness”.

A second choice of three ideas resulted in

• (2) Offer a drink at the beginning of the meeting
• (4) Send extra invitations before the meeting
• (5) Send an SMS to latecomers at the time of the meeting

Here I group 4 and 5 on the one hand, 2 on the other. I’ll call the dimension “positive stimulation” (that’s exactly what 2 does).

Third cycle: Rank dimensions

At this time, I have a slight preference for the dimension “positive stimulation” over “directness” because of our corporate culture. However, I won’t delimit either dimension now.

Fourth cycle: Position ideas

Now that we have two dimensions and several ideas, we can represent them visually:

Fifth cycle: Generate ideas

We see that one of the four quadrants is empty. If we are looking for innovative ideas, we can search for ideas in this quadrant. It’s hallmark is high directness and high positive stimulation. What action can we take towards latecomers, but such that it is positive? For example, we could

• (6) take time to welcome latecomers extensively

While this might look like a bad solution, it actually isn’t. Still, if it was outright bad, we would include it in our list of ideas because it could help us discover dimensions of the solution space we didn’t think of.

Sixth cycle: Position ideas

We just put idea (6) in the empty quadrant and continue with the seventh cycle.

Seventh cycle: Elicit dimensions

Let’s keep our new idea (6) and randomly select two more from the list:

• (1) Be angry at latecomers
• (3) Discuss the most important things first
• (6) Take time to welcome latecomers extensively

It’s obvious we could group (1) and (6) versus (3) because (1) and (6) confront latecomers directly and (3) doesn’t, but that would not lead to a new dimension. Therefore it’s more fruitful to look for other similarities.

What if we combine (1) and (3)? Do they have something in common that (6) doesn’t, apart from the dimension “positive stimulation”? Let’s try to combine (3) and (6) then. Both can be part of the meeting agenda, while (1) can’t. So let’s call the dimension “agendability”. I interpret this dimension as: “can the idea be part of the meeting agenda and thus of the meeting notes”?

Eight cycle: Rank dimensions

For our corporate culture, I would rank the dimensions found so far as follows:

1. Positive stimulation
2. Agendability
3. Directness

Neither dimension needs to be delimited.

That means we’ll have to adapt the diagram in the next cycle.

Ninth cycle: Position ideas

Again we have a part of the solution space that is empty: the part that is “positive stimulation” but can be part of the agenda and the meeting notes. Time for a tenth cycle.

Tenth cycle: Generate ideas

In search for positive action that can be in the meeting notes, we come up with

• (7) make a short endorsment for each meeting participant that shows up on time.
• (8) record a “timeliness indicator” in the notes of each meeting, start with “good” no matter how late the meeting actually starts.

Both ideas seem to be worth of further investigation. I especially like (7) because it works on the need of every human being to hear something positive about himself. Now that I think of it, I’m going to try this.