Using Innovation Games To Prioritize Technical Debt Pub
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Transcript of Using Innovation Games To Prioritize Technical Debt Pub
Using Innovation Games® ToIdentify & Prioritize Technical
DebtLuke Hohmann
Founder and CEO The Innovation Games® Company
Twitter: #innovgames
A bit about Luke
Work Hard
Play Hard (even at work )
Agenda
• What’s technical debt?• How do I identify it?• How do I prioritize it?• How do I get it done?
Technical Debt
Cruft in your { code | architecture | data
| data model | build process | other |that
{ slows down future progress |
just annoys you }
Thx Ward Cunningham & Sterling/Barton and lots of others in the technical community
Cruft… Happens
We get a better idea and want to refactor our code
We cut corners whenwe’re sprinting to
the finish
Previously OKcode needs to change
(security patch, upgrading libraries)
Cruft StinksCustomer
Responsiveness
©2008 Information Architects, Inc.
However…The savvy developer treats technical debt just as the
entrepreneur does financial debt. They use it wisely. It
speeds delivery, so long as it is properly managed.
CollaboratizeSM To Get Rid of Cruft
Play Speed Boat to identify the crufty anchors
that are slowing down your team.
Shape anchors into potential
projects.
Play Buy a Feature to prioritize projects.
Identify Shape Prioritize
What Are Innovation Games®
Innovation Games® are serious games that solve a wide range of product strategy and management problems across the market lifecycle.
They are played: •with customers & internal stakeholders•online or in-person•within or across organizational units•in single or multi-game formats
What Makes Innovation Games® Unique?
• Relaxed, “collaboratively competitive” structure– encourages teamwork – increases sharing of information– and is competitively fun
• Games utilize verbal, non-verbal, written, visual and spatial forms of communication which create rich, nuanced information.
• Strong foundations cognitive psychology & organizational behavior research.
We can collaborate & innovate(better) through serious games
Not Humor Like Joke
Not Silly Like Water Park
More LikeSettlers of Catan &
EuchreMeet Business
And yes, it is FUNV1-388 Luke Did you enjoy this experience?V1-388 Toni Yes - fun!V1-388 Greg Sure.V1-388 Greg I enjoyed it.V1-388 Vladimir thanks for the chance. B)V1-393 Luke Did you enjoy the experience? Would you be willing to play again in the
future?
V1-393 Tom yes, and yesV1-393 Mike Yes -- it was funV1-393 Sarah DefinitelyV1-393 Dominic Yes, and I think VersionOne are getting great info here
V1-393 Patrick I would be happy to play again.V1-394 Luke Team, are you now satisfied with your bids?V1-394 Mike YES!V1-394 Rene yupV1-394 Andre Indeed.V1-394 Jim I want more money!V1-394 Andre It was hard. But lots of fun. And yes, I want more money too - do you
take credit cards?
V1-394 Mike hahahaV1-394 Mike ok, gotta go guys.... it was fun
Not Work(Leisure)
Pleasure
Work
Play
Not-Play
External GoalsInternal Goals
Not-P
leasure
Adapted from http://it.coe.uga.edu/~lrieber/resources/blanchardmodel.gif
Identify Cruft with Speed Boat
Identify the crufty anchorsthat are holding your team
back from success
• Draw a picture of a boat
• The boat represents your system
• Developers create anchors that are holding them back
Players place anchors anywhere they want. These anchors appear in
real-time in the game board.
You can use whatever picture you want(your system could be a sailboat).
Integrated chat facility for players.
Helpful Tips…
Boats are good forgeneric processes
High-level architectures canhelp development teams focus on specific
areas or issues within the system
www.enigma.com
Shaping• Speed Boat game results
are shaped into potential projects.
• Each project is defined in terms of benefits, impacts and costs.
• Involve your team!
Prioritize Projects with Buy a Feature
• 12-20 projects described in terms of benefits and costs
• 5 to 8 players given limited budget
• Purchased items represent the priorities of the team
• Chat logs shape resultsPrioritize the improvement backlog
Buy A Feature Online - Preparing
A list of features with prices. This example is for product concepts for a pair of internet
sunglasses
“Shirt Sizes” help you quickly price your
features – or you can enter a price directly!
Playing the GamePlayers are listed along the
top with their budget
Player bids.
Highly desired items are purchased.
The chat facility helps players negotiate about the items they desire.
Buy A Feature Online - Results
Results of many games played,
sorted by number of times
purchased.
Many Ways to Play: Parties, Galas, and Tournaments
What is it? Who plays? Facilitated? Number of Items?
Number of players?
Party A “dinner party”.
You select and control participants
Yes 12..20 5..8
Gala An “open seating event”
Random participants based on a shared URL
No 12..20 9+In groups of 5..8
Tournament A combination of parties!
You control and select participants
Yes 20+ Based on num of items & num of tournaments
Tournament Structure
15
15
7
745
15
14 7
7
14 7
1
2
3
4
5
List of projects
14 Each dark square represents one game
7 Each light square represents the “winning” projects
Play many tournaments to control for “bracket
strength”.
Getting it Done
• Big stuff gets added to your roadmap
• Smaller items gets added to your backlog – Allocate a certain number of
points each sprint to fixing them
OR– Schedule an entropy reduction
sprint to get rid of lots of cruft
Learn more about roadmaps and entropy reduction here:
Getting Started
Sign up for a free account: www.innovationgames.com
Play games.
Enjoy the results.
Thank You
Innovation Through Understanding®
Luke Hohmann
Founder & CEO
The Innovation Games® Company
cell: (408) 529-0319