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Category: Simulation & Games

How to play Agile WoW – The Board Game – Rules and facilitation tips and tricks

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This is the rules page for the Dandy People agile board game, Agile WoW the Game, in proper board game format. This page will always be updated with the latest rules.

Introduction

Join an agile team and work and learn together to complete the work you’ve committed to!

Setup the game

  1. Place the board in the middle of the table
  2. Sort the Daily Events in two piles, one for Week I and one for Week II
    • Shuffle each pile separately
    • Place one Daily Event upside down on each corresponding spot on the board
  3. Place all Story cards face up in numerical order in the Sprint Backlog column
  4. Place all Task cards face up for each story in the To Do column
  5. Place one Continuous Improvement card face up on each spot on the board
  6. Place all grey Work unit cubes in their area on the board
  7. Place all red/blue/yellow/purple Skill cubes in their area on the board
  8. Hand out all Player boards and the corresponding Team member token to the players.
    Players can have multiple player boards or share player boards depending on the number of players

Objective

Work together to get all tasks from To do to Done using continuous improvements and knowledge sharing wisely to tackle hurdles in your way. Because just like in reality. Things will happen along the way 🙂

Overview

The game is played over 10 rounds, each round a day of work. Each round starts with a daily event affecting the team. Then all players simultaneously decide whether to work on a task, knowledge sharing, or continuous improvements.

How to play

Each round has 5 steps:

1. Daily event

Flip the next daily event hexagon.
Follow the instructions on the back. The effect is only for the current day unless stated otherwise.

Tip! If the event results in someone not being able to work this round, put that player token on the event during that round to not forget.

2. Get to work

For each team member: Decide what to work on and put your team member token there (discussion encouraged!) You have 4 options.

A. Work on a task in the Doing column. Move a Task from To Do to Doing if needed.

  • You must work from left to right on the task.
  • You must have the skill of the next available box on the task.

B. Learn from an expert by putting your token under an expert working (the player with the color of the skill is the expert). In this case, only one day’s work will be achieved, not two. This is due to learning.

C. Review a task in the Review column. You don’t need any specific skill to review a Task and it always take one day for one team member to review a task.

D. Work on continuous improvements by putting your team member token on a continuous improvement. When the Continuous improvement is completed its effect is active from the next turn. You are now a more efficient team. Congratulations!

3. Resolve the day’s work

For each Team member, do one of the following:

  • Did you work to complete a box on a task? Put a grey cube in the box
  • Did you work together with someone? Put a skill cube of the skill you learned on your player board
  • Did you review a task? Move it to Done
  • Did you work on a continuous improvement? Put a grey cube in the next white box on it. If you have filled the last box the continuous improvement rules are active from the next turn on

4. Go home for some well-earned rest

  1. Move your Team member token to your player board.
  2. Move all finished Tasks in To do (ie it has work unit cubes in all boxes) to Review

5. Start the next day

Repeat until you have played 10 rounds. Good luck!

How did we do?

Take 5 minutes to do this retrospective exercise together in your gaming team.

  • What went well during the sprint? How can you do more of that?
  • What did not go so well during the sprint? How can you improve on that?
  • What did you learn?

Still have questions?

Let us know in the comments below and we’ll update the instructions!

Want to buy your own game, or play it online?

Here you can read about the online version of this Agile board game >

Here you find the board game for sale in our shop >

Download these instructions in PDF

Click here

Biggest Fuck Ups Game – a way to build psychological safety

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The following was translated and adapted from the original post in Swedish by Jenny Persson.

We work together at Dandy to create and adapt trainings for our customers’ needs. We often sit together to generate ideas. These sessions, like the one we just had, are unbelievably fun. This time, we had read an article that inspired us to create this game. Namely: https://www.creativehackers.co/posts/the-subtle-art-of-fucking-up

Hence the game was called “Biggest Fuck Ups Game” 🙂

Download the gameboard and play Biggest Fuck Ups Game yourself >

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Biggest Fucked Up Game – ett sĂ€tt att bygga psykologisk trygghet

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NÀr vi pÄ Dandy jobbar med att anpassa utbildningar till vÄra kunders behov sÄ sitter vi alltid och idégenererar tillsammans. Vi har otroligt roligt under dessa sessioner, precis som vi hade nu. Den hÀr gÄngen hade vi lÀst en artikel som vi inspirerades mycket frÄn i framtagandet av ett nytt spel vi gjorde igÄr. NÀmligen denna: https://www.creativehackers.co/posts/the-subtle-art-of-fucking-up

DĂ€rav fick spelet heta “Biggest fuck ups game” 🙂

Ladda ner spelplanen och spela Biggest Fuck Ups Game sjÀlva >

Artikeln triggade oss, eftersom vi alla vet hur det kĂ€nns nĂ€r vi fuckar upp saker. Vi har alla gjort det! Vi ville göra ett allvarligt Ă€mne som psykologisk trygghet lite kul ocksĂ„. Beroende pĂ„ miljön vi befinner oss i nĂ€r vi misslyckas, sĂ„ fĂ„r det oss att kĂ€nna olika saker. Befinner vi oss i en psykologiskt trygg miljö sĂ„ kan vi lĂ€ra oss av det. Befinner vi oss i en otrygg miljö sĂ„ blir instinkten att hitta nĂ„gon att skylla pĂ„ eller försöka gömma sig pĂ„ nĂ„got sĂ€tt, i vart fall sĂ„ uteblir lĂ€randet. Miljön Ă€r alltsĂ„ avgörande och genom den kan â€œBackward law” trĂ€da in, vilket innebĂ€r att rĂ€dslan för att misslyckas blir en sjĂ€lvuppfyllande profetia, och hur bra blir vi dĂ„ pĂ„ vĂ„ra jobb?

Det hÀr Àr ett kÀnsligt och ett viktigt Àmne för mÄnga organisationer. Grunden för om folk presterar bra pÄ jobbet eller inte, ligger i om man har psykologiskt trygghet pÄ jobbet eller inte, och det saknas i mÄnga av dagens organisationer. MÄnga TROR att de har psykologisk trygghet, men det visar sig nÀr man börjar mÀta att den inte Àr sÄ hög, och Àr det nÄgon mÀtning dÀr det INTE bara duger att ligga ok i en mÀtning sÄ Àr det i den hÀr. Det fÄr stora konsekvenser för organisationen i avsaknad av motivation, lÀrande, sjÀlvförtroende, innovation, trygg konfliktlösning, och antal stÀndiga förbÀttringar som görs har forskning visat.

Vad Àr psykologisk trygghet?

Vad Àr dÄ psykologiskt trygghet? Det Àr nÀr man kan prata om misstag man gjort utan att bli dömd, utan att kÀnna att nÄgon tittar snett pÄ en, för om du inte vill se inkompetent eller negativ ut i en otrygg miljö sÄ lÄter du ofta bli att dela idéer du har, du stÀller inte frÄgor, du berÀttar inte för nÄgon om dina svagheter, visar inte dina misstag, du gör sÄ lite som möjligt faktiskt, för dÄ kan du inte göra nÄgot fel. Psykologisk trygghet handlar inte om att ha det mysigt och gott dÀr alla har konsensus, tvÀrtom, det handlar om att höja din röst och ta diskussioner dÀr du ser andra saker, Àven om det Àr obekvÀmt och jobbigt. Eller förestÀll dig bara skillnaden att komma till ett jobb dÀr folk förutsÀtter att du kan ditt jobb, jÀmfört med att folk krÀver att du ska bevisa din kunskap hela tiden. Hur lÀtt Àr det dÄ att kÀnna sig psykologiskt trygg?

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Agile WoW the Game – It’s not whether you Win or Lose, it’s How you Play the Game

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Not many people like being lectured. Not all people like being coached either. But everybody (yes, everybody!) likes games in one form or another. That’s why we’ve created an experienced-based free online game that teaches the basics of an agile way of working.

You can play it yourself or with up to four people, taking the part of a team member in an agile team working on a number of stories in a sprint.

The game introduces:

  • The look and purpose of a scrum board
  • How T-shaping improves your chances of succeeding
  • Why continuous improvements is a good thing in the long run
  • The general structure of a scrum sprint

How to play – the Quick Version

Go to https://tabletopia.com/games/agile-wow-the-game and start playing!

How to play – Extended Version

1. Create an account at tabletopia.com

It’s free and we’ve made an instruction video on how you set it up (because it’s frankly a bit trickier than it should be)

2. Get someone to play with

After creating a “room” you can send an invite code to other players who can join in (they need to create an account as well). Want a video on how to do that? Here you go!

3. Know the rules

Want to know the rules? Then, we’ve got you covered! The rules are available in the game but we made this how-to video just in case:

4. Start playing!

Go to https://tabletopia.com/games/agile-wow-the-game and start playing!

Are you a Team Coach or an Agile Coach?

You can also take the role of a facilitator and play the game to train new agile teams about the basics or let it be the start of a discussion in a more mature team.

After finishing playing, run a retrospective. Follow up the usual “What could have we have done better?” and “What did we do well?” with “How does this compare with real life?” and “Do you work together like this in your teams?” and let the discussions flow.

Playing with people on the same team gets you comparisons to real life (and quite often “why don’t we work more together?”). People from different teams quickly get into comparing ways of working and exchanging ideas. All great stuff, and if you don’t have time to finish the game know that you’ve already won!

In order to create an experienced-based game, we have taken the liberty to simplify some things and we might not follow all the rules of Scrum. But if you are looking for the Scrum Guide you find the 2020 version here.

Wild Animals Agile Game

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In the same way as Aesop’s Fables from Ancient Greece talked about serious matters but transferred them into the world of animals, this game lets all participants play in a friendly environment where nobody is in their ordinary job role. Instead the whole team is challenged to draw randomly selected wild animals well enough so the “customer” can guess what animal is is. The challenge can only be overcome through learning about- and improving how the team is organized and how it works. Two to three hours of laughter, serious learning and quite silly-looking animals can be expected.

The game has been used in one of the largest companies in Sweden to give hundreds of employees a “hands-on” feel for the difference between resource optimization and flow optimization. Especially counter-intuitive ideas need to be experienced to really win acceptance and nothing beats having done it yourself. It also clearly illustrates the value of small rapid improvements in a complex situation (like when working with flow) where you can’t analyze your way to the perfect solution. Sometimes groups of more senior participants try to discuss for a long time before playing another 5-min round. This results in fewer rounds being played, less reality feedback being generated, a slower learning cycle and a lower final score. The team that has the global high-score in the game is a group of junior engineers who could decide rapidly what to try next, play more rounds and thus learn quicker what ACTUALLY worked best. A healthy atmosphere of wanting to change many things compared to the original (and really bad) delivery process was certainly to their advantage too. (more…)

Cynefin simulation – create aha feeling in 20 min on how to plan and deliver in complex situations

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Cynefin Framework

Time: 20 – 30 min
This simulation needs a group of at least 8-10 people, or better 20 people, and a big space where they can spread out and move around to give impact. The simulation isn’t time based, it doesn’t matter how long it takes the group so no stress is put on them, it is purely tasked based.

Read more about Cynefin by Dave Snowden on Wikipedia >

Here you can download the Cynefin Framework poster (PDF) for high resolution >

1. Stand in order of height – Simple or Obvious

Give the instruction: “place your self so that you stand in the order of hight”.
This is usually easily done. Sometimes you can observe that someone acts as a project manager, telling people where to move.

Ask the question to the group: How difficult on a scale 1-10 was this?

Approximate point of discussion
It was easy, you could easily make quick decisions on where to stand just by looking. You didn’t need to do any research or create a strategy. It was easy to act. If they had a PM you can talk about that and if it was ok to act as an PM in this project. (more…)

X-team Silos Game – getting in T-shape

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Cross functional teams are complete in expertise but not necessarily collaborative. Sometimes team members hold on to their expertise too much and the team does not perform to its potential. This Lego game illuminates the difference when members allow themselves to take on tasks outside their expertise, being so called T-shaped. Play the game to kick-start your change and create collaboration.

This post was first published on the Crisp blog when Mia Kolmodin was a Crisp consultant.

Collected downloads from this post – updated June 2017
X-team Facilitators Instructions as PDF >
The X team silos game poster in PDF >

Playing the game.

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2 övningar för att skapa förstÄelse för varför man ska jobba Agilt och med Lean ux @ uxopen 2015

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I dag har jag varit pÄ UX Open tillsammans med ca 300 andra UXare. Vi har diskuterat och delat med oss av erfarenheter. Det har varit givande och roligt.

Kul hÀng pÄ UX open :)
Kul hĂ€ng pĂ„ UX open 🙂

Den hĂ€r posten handlar om den workshop som jag och Anette Lovas frĂ„n Expressen höll med 30 nyfikna personer. Vi gjorde tvĂ„ olika övningar som bygger pĂ„ metodiken upplevelsebaserat lĂ€rande, och syftet var att skapa en förstĂ„else för varför vi behöver arbeta Agilt och med Lean UX. Vi gör övningar för att simulera en situation och möjliggöra en upplevelse som vi sedan diskuterar ikring. Dessa tvĂ„ övningar var SommarĂ€ngen, och en övning som vi kallar “Simple, Complicated and Complex”. HĂ€r beskriver jag hur dessa övningar fungerar och varför du ska göra dom. Gör det gĂ€rna med kunder, utvecklingsteam, ledningsgrupper och chefer, pĂ„ utbildningar, möten eller workshops. Jag har lĂ„nat övningarna av mina Crispkollegor som har kommit pĂ„ dom.
(more…)

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