Technical Debt Game – for non-technical people

Experience the difference between doing continuous refactoring … or not A game for groups from 3 to 5 people. Setup: 5 minIntroduction: 5 minTwo rounds of each 5-10 min so approx. 10-20 minDebrief: 5-15 min Purpose of the game: Explain and experience the effects and consequences of adding feature after feature and cummulating technical debt or doing and investing in continuous refactoring. Background: A team…

The Scrum Gauntlet of Debt

 Overview: A quick and easy demonstration/game to illustrate why an agile team needs to do refactoring and the related XP Practices in addition to Scrum. It never fails to create the A-HA moment for a team and team management as to why, when and how to do refactoring.    Learning Points: Scrum without XP will lead to technical debt and ultimately a legacy system.  …

Once Upon A Time In Legoland

This exercise was co-created as part of a collaboration day between myself and Paul Goddard Timing: 60 minutes Materials: A lot of Lego (Optional) A Digital Camera and Photo printer Instructions: Preparation Ask the group to come up with: a person from history, a colour and an object. Construct a title out of these e.g. The story of Napoleon and the yellow pillow Set the…