Welcome

[Yves Hanoulle]

Hello,

I would like to welcome the 49 people who joined our group in the last month.

We are now with people 252 interested in agile games.

I would like to ask the new people to introduce themselves

 (and anyone who has not done this since he joined the group.)

The format that we have been using is the following

- say who you are 
- what was the first agile game you played 
- when you played that 
- what was your experience 

As more and more people join that probable have never met each other, it would be nice if all of you could update your google profile with a picture, as this give this a more personal feeling.

Yves  

PS As we have some spammers, we have turned on moderation on your first message. By introducing yourself, you have the advantage of us turning of the moderation and by result your other messages will arrive faster.

  

[Alan Cyment]

Hi everyone out there!

My name is Alan Cyment. I'm from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The first agile game I played was the "spaghetti" one (originated on a
game by Augusto Boal). It was facilitated during a CSM class by Tobias
Mayer in August 2006 in Argentina. I was in absolute awe when the
short game ended. Magic was, literally, in the air.

I think that game was the main reason for taking up the arduous, yet
satisfying, agile training/facilitating path I'll still be walking
until I...well...change my mind and do something else. In the
meantime, I'm having a great time.

Cheers,
Alan

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[Yves Hanoulle]

2010/12/16 Alan Cyment <al...@cyment.com>

Hi everyone out there!

Hi Alan,

thanks for taking up this task.

  

My name is Alan Cyment. I'm from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I think you can find some fellow Argentian people around here.

The first agile game I played was the "spaghetti" one (originated on a
game by Augusto Boal). It was facilitated during a CSM class by Tobias
Mayer in August 2006 in Argentina. I was in absolute awe when the
short game ended. Magic was, literally, in the air.

will you tell us some more about this magic??

 

I think that game was the main reason for taking up the arduous, yet
satisfying, agile training/facilitating path I'll still be walking

cool.  

until I...well...change my mind and do something else. In the
meantime, I'm having a great time.

as some friends of mine say:

work == play 

--
Yves Hanoulle 

Phone 00 32 46 43 38 32

Skype YvesHanoulle
Blog: www.Hanoulle.be
Agile Games: http://www.AgileGames.org 
Coaching Question Of the Day: http://twitter.com/Retroflection

[Paul Tevis]

On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 1:44 AM, Yves Hanoulle <Yv...@paircoaching.net> wrote:
> I would like to ask the new people to introduce themselves
>  (and anyone who has not done this since he joined the group.)
> The format that we have been using is the following
> - say who you are
> - what was the first agile game you played
> - when you played that
> - what was your experience

Hello. I'm Paul Tevis, and live in Santa Barbara, California.

The first Agile Game I played was the Ball Point Game, which we did at
the beginning of my CSM training last December. We had around 25
people in a space that wasn't quite big enough for us. (We couldn't
move the furniture out of the way.) Despite the size of the group, we
reached consensus pretty quickly, and the reaction to the game was
generally positive.

While I'm relatively new to Agile Games, I've been doing improv
theatre for the last four years, so the idea of games as teaching
tools is very familiar to me. Just last week I attended an Applied
Improvisers Network event in San Francisco that dealt with some of
these topics. I'm also an avid board game, card game, and roleplaying
game player, and I've been involved in that design community for a
number of years. (I also designed and published a storytelling game
last year.)

What I'm most interested in learning from this group (beyond the
obvious catalog of games) is how to sell the idea of teaching with
games and break down resistance to trying them. I'm working as an
internal agile champion at my company, and I still encounter
skepticism when I suggest trying experiential exercises I've learned
from. Getting agreement from to set aside time to do them is much
harder than getting people to agree to having a meeting to "just talk
about it." What are some techniques you have used to introduce Agile
Games to your co-workers?

Thanks,

--Paul

--
Paul Tevis
pte...@gmail.com
http://paultevis.com

[HATTAT Jeremie]

Hello All,

I am Jérémie Hattat, I'm living in France near Lille.

I worked on software comprehension, and that was the start to look at
how we understand things.
I continue investigations on learning mechanics and how to teach
effectively, inspired by books such as "head first" series.

I first met the agile game at Agile Tour Lille 2008, it was
"plannification and estimation game" by Patrice Petit.
That is, in my opinion, the most effective way to make people
understand principles.

Since September, we have created a Dojo, which goal is to promote
agile and good practices stuff.
In this context we run XPGame, this was successfull !

Now, I want to apply game in the context of code quality (SOLID) and
other technical aspects we face in every day's work challenges.

That's it for the presentation !
Thanks

2010/12/15 Yves Hanoulle <Yv...@paircoaching.net>:

> Hello,
> I would like to welcome the 49 people who joined our group in the last
> month.
> We are now with people 252 interested in agile games.
> I would like to ask the new people to introduce themselves
>  (and anyone who has not done this since he joined the group.)
> The format that we have been using is the following
> - say who you are
> - what was the first agile game you played
> - when you played that
> - what was your experience

> As more and meore people join that probable have never met each other, it

> would be nice if all of you could update your google profile with a picture,
> as this give this a more personal feeling.
> Yves
> PS As we have some spammers, we have turned on moderation on your first
> message. By introducing yourself, you have the advantage of us turning of
> the moderation and by result your other messages will arrive faster.
>
>
>

[Yves Hanoulle]

2010/12/19 Paul Tevis <pte...@gmail.com>

On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 1:44 AM, Yves Hanoulle <Yv...@paircoaching.net> wrote:

> I would like to ask the new people to introduce themselves
>  (and anyone who has not done this since he joined the group.)
> The format that we have been using is the following
> - say who you are
> - what was the first agile game you played
> - when you played that
> - what was your experience

Hello. I'm Paul Tevis, and live in Santa Barbara, California.

Welcome.

With so many people from the US, I loose track of where people live.

I would be surprised if we have no-one from california (that said I realize that california is propably bigger as Belgium.)

   

The first Agile Game I played was the Ball Point Game, which we did at
the beginning of my CSM training last December. We had around 25
people in a space that wasn't quite big enough for us. (We couldn't
move the furniture out of the way.) Despite the size of the group, we
reached consensus pretty quickly, and the reaction to the game was
generally positive.

 

Looking back, was the room size a blocker or an enhancer?

 

While I'm relatively new to Agile Games, I've been doing improv
theatre for the last four years, so the idea of games as teaching
tools is very familiar to me. Just last week I attended an Applied
Improvisers Network event in San Francisco that dealt with some of
these topics. I'm also an avid board game, card game, and roleplaying
game player, and I've been involved in that design community for a
number of years.

We have at least one more person (Nancy Van Schooenderwoert) who has designed her own board game on this list.

(I also designed and published a storytelling game

last year.)

 

Cool, I would love to hear more on that.

 

What I'm most interested in learning from this group (beyond the
obvious catalog of games) is how to sell the idea of teaching with
games and break down resistance to trying them. I'm working as an
internal agile champion at my company, and I still encounter
skepticism when I suggest trying experiential exercises I've learned
from. Getting agreement from to set aside time to do them is much
harder than getting people to agree to having a meeting to "just talk
about it." What are some techniques you have used to introduce Agile
Games to your co-workers?

For me that would be one an important chapter in the book, so anybody that has idea's please share them so we make this as rich as possible.

 

 

Thanks,

--Paul

--
Paul Tevis
pte...@gmail.com
http://paultevis.com

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[Yves Hanoulle]

Bonjour Jérémie,

2010/12/19 HATTAT Jeremie <jha...@gmail.com>

Hello All,

I am Jérémie Hattat, I'm living in France near Lille.

I'm talking my last train to Bordeaux tomorrow in Lille.

    

 

I worked on software comprehension, and that was the start to look at
how we understand things.
I continue investigations on learning mechanics and how to teach
effectively, inspired by books such as "head first" series.

I first met the agile game at Agile Tour Lille 2008, it was

Although I have not been to Agile Tour lille,after being in the city twice a week for 4 months, I 'm concidering next year.

 

"plannification and estimation game" by Patrice Petit.

 Patrice has not joined yet.

That is, in my opinion, the most effective way to make people
understand principles.

 

Since September, we have created a Dojo, which goal is to promote
agile and good practices stuff.
In this context we run XPGame, this was successfull !

Now, I want to apply game in the context of code quality (SOLID) and
other technical aspects we face in every day's work challenges.

I would love to see more games in that area. 

That's it for the presentation !
Thanks

Thank you for taking this time.

 

Yves

[Bruno Sbille]

Hello Everybody (and thanks Yves for creating this group)

My name is Bruno Sbille and I'm from Belgium.
I'm crazy about Coaching, Training and helping teams to be effective
I'm in touch with Agile since 5 years and I have discovered the Agile Games quite recently... And I must admit that I felt in love immediately :-)

I give Agile training (mainly Scrum) and during my trainings I mainly use 2 games:

- XP Game (http://www.xp.be/xpgame.html)
- Fairly tales games (http://www.noop.nl/2009/02/checklist-for-an-agile-game.html)

I've also set up myself 2 smalls games to introduce the role in Scrum and the tasks (cutting)
I plan to explain it on my Blog as soon as I have time ;-)

In my training I love this approach:
Experience it first, feel it, learn by yourself and then we debrief and explain the theoretical concepts.
And Agiles Games are really a perfect match for that.
I use also Agiles games in coaching (not only Agile)

I love those kind of techniques Scrum, Agile Games because...
Often people first think: What is that silly thing...!?
And then you have this "ha-ha" moment !

Anyway I'm really excited about this so "Hi" to the community and I plan to be there:
http://agilegames2011.com/ and http://play4agile.org/

Kind Regards to all of you !

Bruno
(http://brunosbille.com)

2010/12/15 Yves Hanoulle <Yv...@paircoaching.net>

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[Malcolm Anderson]

Hello, I'm Malcolm Anderson, I'm a Scrum Coach and, I've lived in Joplin Missouri for 3 years, but I originally come from Portland Oregon.

My primary focus is on teaching people to learn how to learn.  One of the things that I have learned is that there is a meme running around that "games" are fun but have no educational value.  The interesting thing is that if you simply replace the word "game" with the word "simulator" all of the sudden those people who were laughing at your idea of using games for training are all nodding seriously because, everyone knows that simulators are a proven way of teaching people.  Doesn't the air force use training simulators for their pilots?  Those simulators are certainly not games.

When I first took my CSM 4 or 5 years ago, we played a game with blowing up balloons and making stuff out of paper.  I've been involved in 3 other CSM courses each time doing the travel brochures.

My experience is that I don't feel like the brochure creation is relevant enough for people doing software to get the connection. 

Like Paul, I've played board games, card games and roleplaying games for years. 

One of the things I'm looking at getting from this list is a good collection of games that maybe I can use during retrospectives to help teams get a better feel for "team"



Lastly

One game that I think is great for learning flexible thinking is called Flux.  It's a card game where the rules are changing virtually every time someone plays a card.  The value of the game is to help people who are buried tight in the mindset of  "but we've always done it this way" have a quick experience where they have to constantly ask, "what are the rules during this moment?."  Game play is between 5 and 20 minutes, but you can put in a 10 minute time limit and still get value out of playing 3 games in rapid succession.

Malcolm

[Yves Hanoulle]

Welcome Malcom

2010/12/28 Malcolm Anderson <malcolm.b...@gmail.com>

Hello, I'm Malcolm Anderson, I'm a Scrum Coach and, I've lived in Joplin Missouri for 3 years, but I originally come from Portland Oregon.

I'm not sure about Joplin, but if I'm not mistaken Diana Larsen is from Portland

 

My primary focus is on teaching people to learn how to learn.  One of the things that I have learned is that there is a meme running around that "games" are fun but have no educational value.  The interesting thing is that if you simply replace the word "game" with the word "simulator" all of the sudden those people who were laughing at your idea of using games for training are all nodding seriously because, everyone knows that simulators are a proven way of teaching people.  Doesn't the air force use training simulators for their pilots?  Those simulators are certainly not games.

I find this "funny". Yes they are games. And yes it is a serious learning experience.

 

When I first took my CSM 4 or 5 years ago, we played a game with blowing up balloons and making stuff out of paper. 

the xp game?

http://www.xp.be/xpgame.html 

I've been involved in 3 other CSM courses each time doing the travel brochures.

My experience is that I don't feel like the brochure creation is relevant enough for people doing software to get the connection. 

Will you say more?

What is good and bad about it?

 

Like Paul, I've played board games, card games and roleplaying games for years. 

One of the things I'm looking at getting from this list is a good collection of games that maybe I can use during retrospectives to help teams get a better feel for "team"

make sure you look at the http://blog.tastycupcakes.com/

for a collection.

 

Lastly

One game that I think is great for learning flexible thinking is called Flux.  It's a card game where the rules are changing virtually every time someone plays a card.  The value of the game is to help people who are buried tight in the mindset of  "but we've always done it this way" have a quick experience where they have to constantly ask, "what are the rules during this moment?."  Game play is between 5 and 20 minutes, but you can put in a 10 minute time limit and still get value out of playing 3 games in rapid succession.

Can you write out the description and add it to the tastycupcakes site and then post the link here?

[Tim Yevgrashyn]

Hello Malcolm,

Welcome and could you please put some details on your usage of Flux game for education? :-)

One game that I think is great for learning flexible thinking is called Flux.  It's a card game where the rules are changing virtually every time someone plays a card.  The value of the game is to help people who are buried tight in the mindset of  "but we've always done it this way" have a quick experience where they have to constantly ask, "what are the rules during this moment?."  Game play is between 5 and 20 minutes, but you can put in a 10 minute time limit and still get value out of playing 3 games in rapid succession.

I've been reading about Flux and it sounds very interesting and funny itself. I wonder how it could be used for practical experience and growth of Agile teams.

Thank you in advance!

P.S.

And Happy New Year to all in the group :-)

Tim Yevgrashyn,

Web: http://tim.com.ua
Skype: spidertim
Phone: +380 67 408 53 30

[Malcolm Anderson]

Hi Tim

First, here's their site http://store.looneylabs.com/Fluxx

I don't have any details on using flux in an educational setting.  I haven't actually experimented with it yet.  For all I know, it's a "great idea" that would only work on paper.

(On a different track, I've been involved a few times with using Robert Kiyosaki's "Cashflow 101" game in settings teaching adults new ways about thinking about money.  I know that setting the stage in a learning situation makes a huge difference, as well as having one person per table who has a decent understanding of the game mechanics.)

My expectation with flux would be to take 5 - 10 minutes to talk about being stuck in a rut, and or the costs of responding to new situations in old ways.  2 - 3 different stories about where that's been an expensive proposition, and hopefully get people in the room to bring up a couple of their own stories.  (Off the top of my head, IBM's reaction to MSdos in the 80's.  The rules had changed, but IBM hadn't noticed.)
From there ask people to remember a time when they were the new person at work, and nobody else could see the obvious dysfunction in their department, and how pretty soon everything became, "just the way things are"
Then I would expect to talk about "a quick exercise that at first will not look to have any relations to your day to day work." and then pass out the decks, have them very quickly find the rule card (that's the one with the white background) and have someone deal three cards to each person at the table.
Then I would explain that there are 4 types of cards, showing examples of what it takes to win a game.  Reminding them that we are intentionally throwing them into a situation that they are not prepared for and to notice how they react to the unknown, and let them know that we are going to let the first game run for 5 minutes as a walk through.

After the first round, answer any questions in 5 minutes or less, and then do another 10 minute round, and then a final 10 minute round

I think I've got about 45 minutes worth of time there, and then have a 15 minute conversation picking on the people who won their games, as to what they saw.  Some people will have figured it out, other people would have won by sheer luck.  Either way, the conversation should be guided around having situational awareness, looking at what resources you have available, and what your intended outcome is *at that moment*. 

At this moment, I would start asking, "where at work are you guys trying to accomplish goals that are no longer relevant?"
(In agile, a common question might be, "what reports are being created and managed, but not actually used or read?" )

Wow, that was a much longer version of "I'm not sure" than I expected to write. 
Thanks to you question, I've now got some thoughts on how to implement this in a training situation.
I think that would be a useful hour long module in the right situation.

Malcolm

[Malcolm Anderson]

On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 4:32 AM, Yves Hanoulle <Yv...@paircoaching.net> wrote:

I'm not sure about Joplin, but if I'm not mistaken Diana Larsen is from Portland

One of the reasons I'm looking forward to going back to Portland is the large agile / scrum community that exist there.
 

When I first took my CSM 4 or 5 years ago, we played a game with blowing up balloons and making stuff out of paper. 

the xp game?

http://www.xp.be/xpgame.html 

Yep, looks like we played a variant of the xp game.  I remember it being fast and fun. This was about 5 years ago and looking through some of the cards (thanks for the link) there are some bells ringing in my head, we did deal with more sizing and estimating than I originally remembered.

I'm looking forward to doing a deep dive into the materials behind the link



 

I've been involved in 3 other CSM courses each time doing the travel brochures.

My experience is that I don't feel like the brochure creation is relevant enough for people doing software to get the connection. 

Will you say more?

What is good and bad about it?

What's good is that you have to figure out what your overall brochure is going to look like (whole product development)
What's bad is there is no real sense of estimating and velocity.

MalcoLm
(2L's 2M's)

[Karen X]

Where are the instructions for playing Flux? And is there a
distributed team version?

Karen

On Dec 28 2010, 11:43 am, Malcolm Anderson

> MalcolmOn Sat, Dec 18, 2010 at 6:59 PM, Paul Tevis <pte...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 1:44 AM, Yves Hanoulle <Y...@paircoaching.net>

> > agilegames+...@googlegroups.com<agilegames%2Bunsubscribe@googlegrou ps.com>
> > .

[Malcolm Anderson]

Hi Karen

The rules of flux are very simple, draw one card, play one card.  Every other rule (including winning conditions) is determined by what what cards get played.

As for a distributed team version, there is not currently one. 

However if you want to start talking about traditional board games that require people to act a team, pandemic is is great.  If the team doesn't act like a team, the human race dies.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549/pandemic

Malcolm

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[Tim Yevgrashyn]

Hi Malcolm,

Thanks a lot for detailed explanation of the session. It sounds very realistic as for me. I hope I'll get a chance to try it ASAP.

The session you proposed is definetely worth description on tasycapcakes blog (hope Michael and Done are reading this).

The only challenge for me personally is to get Fluxx decks delivered to Ukraine - I'll investigate all options. Will appreciate any help directly on my mail.

Off-topc:

As for sessions like you described, I had simillar experience with "Business Value Game" for up to 70-98 people (i.e. 10-13 teams of 7).

We had 5-10 minutes for setting the stage. After that we had 6 iterations as the game prescribes. We monitored overall score every 2d iteration and "interviewed" a leader each time. At the end the winner team explained their strategy, so everyone, could compare where they did not so good decisions. 

It seems for me, such "sessions" are another direction of practical games..

Tim Yevgrashyn,

Web: http://tim.com.ua
Skype: spidertim
Phone: +380 67 408 53 30

[Silvana Wasitova]

Hello & Bonjour all (Hi Alan!),

 

I am Silvana Wasitova, Scrum Coach in Lausanne, Switzerland.

My first game in 2005 was the Travel Brochure - which was an ok game, though I like the XP Game better.

 

I particularly like Henrik Kniberg's "Name Game" - it is so simple and in a little time very clearly illustrates a fundamental concept. Henrik was planning to post it on his blog, but I can't find it there yet, though it has been written up  by Jon Jagger on:

http://jonjagger.blogspot.com/2010/03/henrik-knibergs-name-game.html

 

I look forward to more ideas and simulations that facilitate learning and changing entrenched behaviors.

 

Cheers,

 

Silvana Wasitova

Skype: wasitova

[Yves Hanoulle]

2011/1/7 Silvana Wasitova <wasi...@gmail.com>

Hello & Bonjour all (Hi Alan!),

 

I am Silvana Wasitova, Scrum Coach in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Hi Silvana

Welcome

 

My first game in 2005 was the Travel Brochure - which was an ok game, though I like the XP Game better.

 

what did you like better about the xp game?

 

 

I particularly like Henrik Kniberg's "Name Game" - it is so simple and in a little time very clearly illustrates a fundamental concept. Henrik was planning to post it on his blog, but I can't find it there yet, though it has been written up  by Jon Jagger on:

http://jonjagger.blogspot.com/2010/03/henrik-knibergs-name-game.html

Looks like a nice one

 

 

I look forward to more ideas and simulations that facilitate learning and changing entrenched behaviors.

 

under the idea of the "best teachers are students", could you mention something you have learned this year that helped you for this?

 

y

[Paul Tevis]

On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 4:39 AM, Silvana Wasitova <wasi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello & Bonjour all (Hi Alan!),
>
> I am Silvana Wasitova, Scrum Coach in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Bonjour, Silvana. My company has an office in Lausanne. Perhaps next
time I'm visiting the team there we can play some Agile Games.