Adventures in Project Management
Scrumples! - relocate our office
Scrumples! - relocate our office is a fun and noisy board game that teaches the basics of using a sprint board, Programme Increment planning and the importance of making the people element central to to any transformation project. Players compete to complete an office move in three Programme Increments, each ten sprints long. Competing user expectations, an overwhelming set of requirements, unpredictable progress and spiralling morale increase the tension as teams battle to complete their move on time with the highest morale score.
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Game play includes counters, dice and bicycle horns. It works best with 3-4 people in a team and 2-4 teams competing and needs a referee to co-ordinate the chaos as it rapidly gets very noisy as everyone finds their inner competitive child! It takes 60-90 minutes to play. No previous knowledge of agile is needed and players will come away with a basic knowledge of Kanban, sprints and Programme Increment planning.
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The scenario
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Congratulations. You have just been asked to lead the relocation of 20% of your organisation's workforce (1000 staff & contractors) from a historically prestigious building to a site one mile away. Builders are on site refurbishing the new building and the in-house IT team has agreed to deliver the new IT solution. You have been told not to worry about the building work or IT and to focus on moving the people. Some early movers are already working in part of the new building; the remaining move is split into four phases. Space is at a premium so you are introducing desk sharing in both the new and existing buildings. This is unpopular and necessary. You are co-locating with people from two partner organisations who have different cultures but common business aims.
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Your Operations Director wants increased productivity, your Estates Director wants more people for fewer desks, your HR Director wants increased workforce wellbeing and your Futures Director wants flexibility for a future no-one can yet imagine.
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You have sufficient funding for this project but limited time. In sixty weeks a VIP visit will officially open the new facility and meet the people working there. Your sixty weeks is split into three Programme Increments (PIs), each ten sprints in duration.
Let's Scrumple!