Facilitator’s Guide to Lean, Agile and DevOps Thinking- with Team Building Exercises

1. Facilitator’s Guide
to
Lean, Agile and DevOps Thinking-
with Team Building Exercises
Ravi Tadwalkar
Lean/Agile/DevOps Coach
Co-founder, “Cisco Internal Coaches Network”; AgileCamp.org
Event Organizer, SVALN
December 2016. This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

2. 2
Agenda
Lean Thinking with Penny Game (15 minutes)
Agile Management By Walking Around (15 minutes)4
2
Team Building with Marshmallow Challenge Game (15 minutes)1
Agile and DevOps Thinking with Lego Scrum Game (90-120 min)5
Lean and Agile Thinking with BallPoint Game (30 minutes)3
Lean Kanban Thinking with getKanban Game (90-120 min)6
2

3. Team Building Exercise #1: Marshmallow Challenge
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▪ Teams cannot hold on to the structure when the time runs out.
Build the tallest Freestanding structure
The entire marshmallow must be on top
Use as much or little of the kit as you need
Sticks, string, and tape can be broken up
Time to complete the challenge: 15 minutes
▪ The winning team is the one that has the tallest structure measured from the table top surface to the top of
the marshmallow. That means the structure cannot be suspended from a higher structure
• Cutting or eating part of the marshmallow disqualifies the team.
• The team can use as many or as few of the 20 spaghetti sticks, as much or as little of the string or tape
as part of their structure
▪ Teams are free to break the spaghetti, cut up the tape and string to create new structures.
Team Building Exercise #1: Marshmallow Challenge

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6. 6
Agenda
Lean Thinking with Penny Game (15 minutes)
Agile Management By Walking Around (15 minutes)4
2
Team Building with Marshmallow Challenge Game (15 minutes)1
Agile and DevOps Thinking with Lego Scrum Game (90-120 min)5
Lean and Agile Thinking with BallPoint Game (30 minutes)3
Lean Kanban Thinking with getKanban Game (90-120 min)6
6

7. Exercise: The Penny Game
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Learn how to achieve more, by
doing less
Work in groups of 5. One
timekeeper and four people doing
work.
Time box: 15 Minutes
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8. Exercise: The Penny Game
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Round 1:
Each person flips all pennies, one at a time.
Pass all the pennies to the next person
when you are done.
The time keeper will record the total time it
takes everyone to flip all of the coins.
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9. Exercise: The Penny Game
9
Round 2:
Flip each penny one at a time
Pass each penny to the next person one at
a time
The time keeper will record the total time it
takes everyone to flip all of the coins.
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10. Exercise: The Penny Game
10
RETROSPECTIVE:
Which way worked better?
Why do you think that is?
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Agenda
Lean Thinking with Penny Game (15 minutes)
Agile Management By Walking Around (15 minutes)4
2
Team Building with Marshmallow Challenge Game (15 minutes)1
Agile and DevOps Thinking with Lego Scrum Game (90-120 min)5
Lean and Agile Thinking with BallPoint Game (30 minutes)3
Lean Kanban Thinking with getKanban Game (90-120 min)6
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Team Building Activity: Lean Thinking with Ball Point Game
Rules: 5 minutes
1. Each ball must have air-time.
2. Each ball must be touched at least once by every team member.
3. Balls cannot be passed to your direct neighbor to your immediate left or right.
4. Each ball must return to the same person who introduced it into the system.
5. There are a total of five iterations.
6. A designated timekeeper records count of balls passed during each iteration.
Instructions: 5-minute short iteration, 5 such iterations
1. Two minutes of preparation time to determine how team will self-organize. (~Planning)
2. Two minute game play. (~Sprinting)
3. Record #balls that pass through the system (~Demo)
4. One minute to discuss how to improve the process. (~Retrospective)
5. Repeat for five iterations (steps 1 to 5).
Time box: 30 Minutes Goal- Get as many balls “flow” through the team as possible within 2 minutes
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Agenda
Lean Thinking with Penny Game (15 minutes)
Agile Management By Walking Around (15 minutes)4
2
Team Building with Marshmallow Challenge Game (15 minutes)1
Agile and DevOps Thinking with Lego Scrum Game (90-120 min)5
Lean and Agile Thinking with BallPoint Game (30 minutes)3
Lean Kanban Thinking with getKanban Game (90-120 min)6
13

14. Exercise: Management by Walking Around
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Learn why empowering teams is
so effective
Work in groups of 2. One team
member is the manager, the other
is the team member.
Time box: 15 Minutes

15. Exercise: Management by Walking Around
15
Manager Directs Team Member to
take steps to walk across the room
Manager must count steps,
instruct the team member and
walk behind the Team Member
Team member cannot talk
Round 1

16. Exercise: Management by Walking Around
16
Manager Instructs the Team Member to
cross the room but does not give
direction
Team Member counts steps and moves
alone (Manager stays behind)
When completed, Team Member
reports the number of steps to the
Manager.
Round 2

17. Exercise: Management by Walking Around
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• Which approach worked more
efficiently?
• Which felt better to the team
member?
• Was the manager satisfied with
the results for round 2?
Retrospective

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Break
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Agenda
Lean Thinking with Penny Game (15 minutes)
Agile Management By Walking Around (15 minutes)4
2
Team Building with Marshmallow Challenge Game (15 minutes)1
Agile and DevOps Thinking with Lego Scrum Game (90-120 min)5
Lean and Agile Thinking with BallPoint Game (30 minutes)3
Lean Kanban Thinking with getKanban Game (90-120 min)6
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Chocolate Lego Scrum Game
Sys Admin
provisions team
with environment
Business Owner adjusts
Market Demand in each sprint
Team tries to
make money by
creating batches
(user stories) in
each sprint
Time box: 90-120 Minutes Goal- Make Money based on Quantity, Batch Size & Price
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Lego Scrum Game: Three Sprints Simulations
• Sprint 1: Cyclical value delivery–
with Scrum
• Sprint 2: Agile Transformation –
optimizing Scrum team
• Sprint 3: Optimizing flow of value
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Lego Scrum Game: Characters in the game
• Each Scrum teams have characters
associated: 4 Dev, 2 Testers, 1 Scrum
Master and 1 Product/Service Owner
• Each scrum team has 3 Ops team
members: 1 Release Engr, 1 Sys
Admin, and 1 Security Engr
• Each Scrum team has 1 Business
Owner associated.
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Lego Scrum Game: Definition of Done
• Each package contains:
• one Lego animal
• one chocolate candy
• Type of animal as per user story.
• Each animal has a label with a
unique number between 1 & 120
• white numbered labels in all sprints
Sample animals:
A lion and a horse
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Lego Scrum Game: A Batch = A User Story Shippable As A Deployment Package
• LEGO animal = software tasks
• Chocolate = user documentation
User Story
Deployment
package
Five small
individual
packages
with a
LEGO dog
and a
chocolate
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Lego Scrum Game: Sprint 1- Cyclical Value Delivery with Scrum
Rules for Sprint 1:
• Sys Admin creates development environment for team
• Dev creates animal
• QA labels animal with a unique numbered label & attaches a chocolate to put it into small package with that chocolate.
• QA will create Deployment Package (“batch”) with such small packages
• QA hands off the deployment package to Release Engineer.
• Security Engineer then conducts security checks at Operations table.
• Scrum Team and Ops team both operate within the boundaries of their roles.
Product/Service Owner instructions:
• Product/ Service Owner specifies work for the sprint, e.g. 1 batch of dogs, 2 batches of cats, etc.
• Once batches produce desired quantity, Release Engineer takes deployment package to Business Owner.
Scrum Master manages time-box:
• Planning: 2 min
(to plan work for the sprint)
• Execution: 8 min (to hand-off deployment package and run security checks. If possible, Demo: 2 min, and Retrospective: 1 min)
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Lego Scrum Game: Sprint 1- Group Level Debriefing
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Lego Scrum Game: Sprint 2- Optimizing the Scrum Team
Rules for Sprint 2:
• Dev and QA are not siloes anymore
• Cross-train Developers and Testers
• Everyone now creates animal and attaches a chocolate to it
• Invite Sara Security into Scrum Team – learn about security issues before implementation.
• Security Engineer tells what not to put into the Deployment Package
• Everyone puts white label on the animal with a unique numbered white label & puts it into small package with that chocolate.
• First release into production. Only release engineer can deploy.
• Everyone will create Deployment Package (“batch”) with such small packages
• Everyone hands off the deployment package to Release Engineer.
• First release into production. Only release engineer can deploy, since packages are bug-free.
Product/Service Owner instructions, same as sprint 1:
• Product / Service Owner specifies work for the sprint, e.g. 1 batch of dogs, 2 batches of cats, etc.
• Once batches produce desired quantity, Release Engineer takes it as deployment package to Business Owner.
Scrum Master manages time-box:
• Planning: 2 min
(to plan work for the sprint)
• Execution: 8 min (to hand-off deployment package and run security checks. If possible, Demo: 2 min, and Retrospective: 1 min)
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Lego Scrum Game: Sprint 2- Group Level Debriefing
How was your experience?
What was different in Sprint 1 and Sprint 2?
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Lego Scrum Game: Sprint 3- Optimizing the system with Agile Transformation
Rules for Sprint 3:
• Improving the flow:
• Dev and OPs are not siloes anymore
• Building T-shaped skills
• At the start of Sprint 3, players will cross-train each other and exchange red & green labels to indicate
completion of cross-training on their name tags. Now they are able to play additional roles in the overall process.
• Right after the cross-training is complete, introduce two more changes to the game:
• Batch size = 1
• Team agreed to move to “one-piece flow”, no more large user stories
• Simplified deployment process
• Now instead of building a task in a small package and then assembling all tasks in a deployment package,
the task will be built directly in a single deployment package –for a simplified, automated deployment.
• Everyone who has been cross-trained by Robert Release Engineer can now deploy into production.
• Accelerating the Feedback
• Simplifying deployments
• Continuous Delivery
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Lego Scrum Game: Sprint 3- Group Level Debriefing
How was your experience?
What was different in Sprint 1, Sprint 2 & Sprint 3?
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Break
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Agenda
Lean Thinking with Penny Game (15 minutes)
Agile Management By Walking Around (15 minutes)4
2
Team Building with Marshmallow Challenge Game (15 minutes)1
Agile and DevOps Thinking with Lego Scrum Game (90-120 min)5
Lean and Agile Thinking with BallPoint Game (30 minutes)3
Lean Kanban Thinking with getKanban Game (90-120 min)6
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Learning Activity: Lean Kanban Thinking with getKanban
GameTime box: 90-120 Minutes Goal- Simulation based learning
The getKanban Board Game can be played in one of three modes. This
slide deck is for Advanced mode.
Slide decks for Quick Play and Standard modes, as well as the
Facilitator’s Guide, and Apple Keynote versions of each are available
for download at www.getkanban.com
If you are new to the game and will be facilitating it, start by
downloading and reading the Facilitator’s Guide.
This deck includes Game Setup, Instructions, and Debrief suggestions.
It contains many animations, so it is best to view it in Slide Show view
(play it) rather than edit view.
Game version: 4.0
Slide deck version: 4.0-adv-pp-beta
Advanced Mode
Contents
Setup
Instructions
Debrief
© getKanban Ltd, 2013.
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Break
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Summary: What is Lean? How to implement Lean with Agile & DevOps?
Lean Principles Implementation in Agile & DevOps
Eliminate waste Retrospectives, Feedback loops at every iteration
Amplify learning Retrospectives, Feedback loops at every iteration
Decide as late as possible Iteration Planning every 2 weeks
Deliver as fast as possible Short Iterations
Empower the team Servant Leadership, Team Collaboration
Build integrity in Build Quality In: Continuous Testing & integration
See the whole Cross functional teams, breaking down Silos
Principles
Values
Process
Practices
(kata)
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36. Thank You