Virtual Kanban Games

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Mark Levison

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Feb 23, 2021, 12:37:13 PM2/23/21
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Funny being a Scrum Trainer - I have a dozen ways to help people learn Scrum online - Goldilocks and the Three Bears; Lego4Scrum, ....

I'm trying to help a client with both Kanban and Scrum. I'm looking for a simple simulation that I can introduce in training. 

So far I've seen:
- https://agilegame.octigo.pl/ - I would prefer a game that doesn't set the pace for you. In addition dealing with prioritization while important is too much in this case
- http://www.kanbansim.org/boards/74287076d568002cf4c9fe4cda61f1ad - could be helpful as a sim, not immersive - they see Kanban, they don't practice it

Almost perfect
- https://tools.kaiten.io/featureban/ea962126-13db-47fe-8aa0-c81330e4368b - implementation of FeatureBan from Mike B. 
Its requires 3 players which will make it tough to demonstrate before sending the team members to breakout sessions.
- Some of the rules of FeatureBan are complicated to understand/explain. My fear is that I will lose 10+ minutes explaining the rules instead of experiencing Kanban.

What other Kanban games do you have for the virtual land? 

I'm happy to setup a game in Mural and get people to track numbers in a google sheet.

Cheers
Mark

Alan Dayley

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Feb 23, 2021, 12:47:04 PM2/23/21
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In person I have used Kennan Pizza and it’s variations with great success. I think it could be adapted to Mural and the like.

Alan

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Mark Levison

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Feb 23, 2021, 3:01:24 PM2/23/21
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Good reminder. Before I go spend days on this, has anyone ported the game to Mural. (I know there is a Miro version I was hoping someone had created a Mural template).

Cheers
Mark

Valerie Lemineur

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Feb 23, 2021, 3:33:08 PM2/23/21
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Hi, I'm interested in the MiRO version if you have it, I'll be thankful if you can send me the link :-)

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Mark Levison

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Feb 23, 2021, 3:35:19 PM2/23/21
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https://miro.com/miroverse/kanban-pizza-game/
Now you owe a magical mural link - :-) 

Cheers
Mark

Valerie Lemineur

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Feb 23, 2021, 3:49:56 PM2/23/21
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haha ! Unfortunately I don't use Mural because it's security blocked in the company where I work :-/

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Jonatan L. R. Aguiar

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Feb 24, 2021, 2:39:32 AM2/24/21
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Samir Hanna

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Feb 25, 2021, 10:45:18 AM2/25/21
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Depending on the context the Kanban Pizza game can be great or too broad. When I want to be more specific on the WiP Limit & Pull concepts I use the Shipbuilding game. I made a version of it in Miro, less advanced than the Kennan one though :D.


Happy to play it with you if you like :)


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Mark Levison

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Feb 25, 2021, 10:57:25 AM2/25/21
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Jonatan - cool list - I will add them to my archive.

Samir - is there a description of the shipbuilding game somewhere? I like what I see so far.

Thanks
Mark

Dillon Weyer

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Feb 25, 2021, 10:59:38 AM2/25/21
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I also created an online version of the shipbuilding game, but I used Trello

Instructions:

This is a link to a demo version of the board with examples.

Board is set up for 10 people, 9 stations, and a timer, but you can add additional activities like checklists of additional labels, or remove and or combine steps if you have fewer players.

Please give feedback if you give it a try.

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Samir Hanna

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Feb 25, 2021, 11:19:13 AM2/25/21
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I actually never found a written description of the ship building game. I know this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIc9ttGurUo



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Samir Hanna

PRIME HOLLAND

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Feb 25, 2021, 3:07:37 PM2/25/21
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That is a very good one.
Thank you

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Mark Levison

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Mar 10, 2021, 1:41:11 PM3/10/21
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Samir and co - I'm finally doing the work prepping my session (since the client finally picked a date). I found two written descriptions online: 
https://matiasfrndz.ch/2020/02/A-Facilitators-Guide-for-The-Ship-Building-Simulation
https://www.komplexitaeter.de/en/inspiration-en/kanban-simulation-the-ship-building-game/

Questions about the ship building game:
- On the miro board - measurements are made every two minutes. Am I correct in thinking that at the 6 minute mark you pause the game and introduce the "red" or special ship?
- Have you tried introducing a third round where people do experimental improvements or am I stretching too far?
- Do you give them a quick intro to Kanban first or derive after the game? My thinking is the latter.

Thanks
Mark

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Samir Hanna

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Mar 10, 2021, 3:02:05 PM3/10/21
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Great, let us know how it goes. Good luck. My replies in you email.

Le mer. 10 mars 2021 à 19:41, Mark Levison <ma...@mlevison.com> a écrit :
Samir and co - I'm finally doing the work prepping my session (since the client finally picked a date). I found two written descriptions online: 

Questions about the ship building game:
- On the miro board - measurements are made every two minutes. Am I correct in thinking that at the 6 minute mark you pause the game and introduce the "red" or special ship?

Correct.
 
- Have you tried introducing a third round where people do experimental improvements or am I stretching too far?

No but I tried other experiments. When the group is big enough I tried to start one group in push and one group in pull, and then shift. It demonstrate that the effect of the learning curve is not that big. But I stopped, I feel it broke the Aha...
 
- Do you give them a quick intro to Kanban first or derive after the game? My thinking is the latter.

I personally do a group debriefing (questions on the Miro) and follow up with a Kanban presentation building on the game.
 

Thanks
Mark

On Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 11:19 AM Samir Hanna <han....@gmail.com> wrote:
I actually never found a written description of the ship building game. I know this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIc9ttGurUo



Le jeu. 25 févr. 2021 à 16:57, Mark Levison <ma...@mlevison.com> a écrit :
Jonatan - cool list - I will add them to my archive.

Samir - is there a description of the shipbuilding game somewhere? I like what I see so far.

Thanks
Mark

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Samir Hanna

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Mark Levison

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Mar 11, 2021, 3:26:49 PM3/11/21
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24 hrs later and we've got a first attempt up in Mural:
https://app.mural.co/t/agilepainrelief7758/m/agilepainrelief7758/1615494007568/55db10837fae75a00b1d748ce8739e65d2188f12

Is it usable?
Are the instructions roughly right?
Is the scoring sufficient?

Cheers
Mark

Dillon Weyer

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Mar 12, 2021, 6:11:09 AM3/12/21
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When I tried Mural with a group of people, the feedback was that it was frustrating to try and group, then ungroup elements. This detratacted from the intended learning and became more about the tool and experience with the tool.

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Samir Hanna

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Mar 12, 2021, 8:37:31 AM3/12/21
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Yes in Miro as well it’s challenging. I made the group/ungroup part of DoD, some sort of technical constraints. People improved over time and started to use shortcuts etc. 

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Mark Levison

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Mar 12, 2021, 8:44:52 AM3/12/21
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I agree that group/ungroup is challenging. That's why we don't get them to ungroup. 

Also there will be 2-3 practice rounds with me in the main session, before breakout rooms per team.

Are the instructions roughly right?


Is the scoring sufficient?

Cheers
Mark 

Marcin Żmigrodzki

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Dec 25, 2022, 7:06:59 AM12/25/22
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Hi,

this is Marcin from Octigo. I have just found your comment about our game and i wonder if adding small feature would help.
I mean to add small switch which if set on, will freeze time after each day of simulation, so the user will have time needed to prepare for next simulated day.

Marcin

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