Kanban Tetris

Timing: About 2-3 hours

Materials: – General

• A noise maker (bell, horn, whistle) to start/end iterations.
• Tape to fix down the ‘Inventory Stores’
• Stop watch or other timing device

Materials: – Each Team

• A table that can seat 4 people comfortably
• Sticky Note pad– back torn off, so sticky-side is up.
• 4×4 Quad ruled paper – 4 or 5 sheets
• Four sharpies / thick pens
• 4 sheets white paper to represent the inventory stores
• Assorted Lego blocks in three colors
• A strip of Lego Building Platform –32 wide, about 8 deep (one platform cut into 4 works nicely).
• A pair of scissors

Instructions:

Teams of 4 people (a customer, a designer, a developer, and a tester/integrator) create a wall ‘tetris’ style – creating interlocking shapes in Lego to create a solid wall.

Please see Facilitator Notes and Participant Instructions for details:

Kanban Tetris Participant Instructions

Kanban Tetris Facilitator Notes

Kanban Tetris Instruction Presentation

Kanban Tetris Cumulative Flow Input Sheets

4×4 Quad Paper

Kanban Tetris Cumulative Flow Input Sheets

Learning Points:

1. This game introduces the basic mechanics of Kanban to a team already familiar with Iterative (scrum-like) development.  It demonstrates how Kanban regulates production flow.
2. Can be used to practice Scrum/Iterative, and/or Kanban/Continuous delivery methods.
3. It also teaches emergent design, as only one row of the wall can be designed at any time.
4. Cumulative Flow Diagram templates are included as an extension of the game.