Presentation by full-stack agile - This presentation shows a great scrum game for training or team building. The purpose to show the importance and success of iterative development.
3. The Game
A great way to introduce the concept of Scrum, and iterations.
All you need is:
3 Ping Pong balls
A team If you want to add some creativity maybe some other
objects such as tape, paper cups, stationary etc…
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4. I find its best to get the team into a kind of semi-circle.
Give the team one ball and ask them to randomly throw it to each other.
There are these 3 rules:
• It must be held by everyone
• It cannot go to the person to your direct left or right (if possible)
• It must start and end with the same person
5. Once they have done it once, then tell them they have to do it again in the same order and you will time them.
Each time they drop the ball they get a 5 second penalty.
**Its good if you allude to the fact you are going to time them at the beginning, it can be a talking point during the exercises regarding missed requirements **
Inform them that was good for a practice stage, and how hand them 2 more balls so they have 3 in total.
6. Tell them they must now do the same, they must throw the 3 balls in the same order and it must start and end with the same
person.
They will be timed, there is a 5 second penalty if the order is broken or the ball is dropped.
They should maybe do it in a minute or so depending on the team size.
Get them to do it a few times to try and beat their time. Then tell them you have seem teams do it in half the time.
You will see them start to be a bit more creative. After each round, tell them you have seen someone do it in half the time.
The quickest it can be done is about 1 second!
Attempt Time
1 1 minute
2 30 seconds
3 15 seconds
4 6 seconds
7. The outcome of the game and the talking point should be the benefits of iterative development. The
team tried something in one round; they reviewed what they did and looked what worked well, what
didn’t and looked to improve. It’s the same concept in Scrum, continuous improvement.
The Objective