agile « Thinking for a Change

XP Days France 2008 part 1 – Games

Lean games

First session of the day at XP Days France 2008: “Le système Lean“. Participants played in a simulation of a production line (similar to the one we use for the “I’m not a bottleneck! I’m a free man!” session) and gradually improved their results by by using Lean methods like Takt, pull, seeing waste, building quality in and learning.

I liked the way the game featured financial metrics to measure the cost and value of the “company”. Metrics and the learning could be useful additions to the Bottleneck simulation. Maybe we can add them for the Theory of Constraints session at the “Université du SI” in July in Paris.

Visibility for the non-participants wasn’t very good, due to the layout of the room. The audience of XP Days France has grown. Unfortunately, as you will see later, the rooms haven’t grown along.

XP Games

Meanwhile, Oli Lafontan ran the XP Game with 6 teams. That’s a bit much for one coach, so in the break Portia and I offered to help Oli coach. This was a good opportunity for me to see Oli at work and see the changes that he introduced to the XP Game. As usual at an XP Game, fun was had by all and everybody experience how an XP team collaborates, plans, estimates and reflects. See for yourself in the pictures.

XP Days France 2008 – Paris, je t’aime

I’ve written before about XP Days France. Time for an update.

The conference will be held on 5-6 May in Paris (not 12-13 May as announced previously). That’s only a few days away. Book now if you haven’t yet.

I’ll be there. I’ll co-host two sessions and attend fun, interesting and useful sessions.

Les neuf cases pour bien comprendre son client

This interactive session will be hosted by Bernard Vander Beken, Portia Tung and me. In the session, groups of 3 participants learn how to interview customers to help them to understand their problem and to write user stories. It’s a re-run of the successful session Bernard and I hosted at XP Days Benelux. Fun and learning guaranteed.

Real Options, l’ultime frontière

Portia Tung and I host this space game simulation to teach participants all about Real Options.

What are Real Options? They are a technique to make better decisions, by giving us more time to gather information and by considering more options. They are an underlying principle of Agile and Lean. This is an improved version of the presentation and game we ran at Agile North and at a tryout in London. At both events, players discovered some important lessons. They discovered that common sense is not so common, especially when we are under pressure.

A bientôt!

We are not worthy!

Heroes

Last January, I wrote about a team that applied creativity techniques. I told you you would hear more about them. Now is the time to tell you more. Have a look at the list of presenters at Octo Technology‘s “Université du SI“!

Bjarne Stroustrup!

Eliyahu Goldratt!

Neil Armstrong!

And loads of other interesting speakers.

A l’aide! Mon processus m’étrangle!

Portia and I have been invited to host a session about the Theory of Constraints and Lean, the popular and always-changing “I’m not a bottleneck! I’m a free man!” game. How cool is that?

Thanks to Pierre, Cedric, Bernard, Olivier and the rest of the Octo gang for organizing this fantastic conference and inviting us.

Paris, here we come!

Essap 2008

Essap 2008 in Varese

This year’s Essap course on agile development will be held in lovely Varese from June 30th to July 4th.

If you want to learn more about the theory and practice of agile in beautiful, relaxing surroundings, this is the place to be. Matteo, Federico and Vieri have created a great course with interesting speakers.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend this year, due to other commitments. If you have the opportunity to attend, don’t hesitate. Go Essap!

London, the final frontier

The Space Game

Royal Festival Hall Portia and I have been working on a Real Options game, with the help of Vera. Last Friday, we held our first tryout.

We set up shop in the friendly environment of the Royal Festival Hall with our game props: a galaxy game board, space ships, planets, sweets, maps, stories, news items, stuff to play with… The usual motly, colourful items that signal to participants that this is safe, ‘just’ a game.

Portia told the story behind the game: participants had to fulfill a mission to preserve peace across the galaxy. We explained some of the rules. Participants had to ask us more questions to discover what this simulation was all about.

We played the game in several rounds. In each round, the teams had to plan their move and then execute their chosen move on the game board. Along the way we introduced real options concepts. The players were really ‘in’ the game, fully absorbed. Near the end, they discovered an important concept.

I can’t tell you what, you’ll have to play the game yourself!

After the game, we held a retrospective with the players. This was the most important part of the evening for us, because the first rule of game and session development is:

Space ships Tryout, feedback, improve, repeat

If you want to create a great game, session or performance, iteration is essential. You gather your ideas, create a structure, bring in all the props… and then the real work begins. You get valuable feedback from the participants and by observing, you improve the game. And then you do it again. And each time the performance improves.

Yes, release often, iteration, feedback and simplicity are useful for game design too.

And courage… We were a bit nervous. Would the game work? Would the concepts be clear? Would the participants like it? The participants did have fun and learned something. We learned a lot. There’s a lot to improve.

Come out and play

If you want to have fun and learn more about real options you can play the game at Agile North on 26th of April and at XP Days France on 5-6 May. See you there!

A big T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U to David, Daniel, Maria, Sharmila, Matt, Chris and Henry for being such great players and for the excellent feedback.