A Game to help people understand what it takes to build high performance organizations. The presentation only works with the game materials: https://agilepainrelief.com/building-high-performance-organizations-game

1. Building High
Performance
Organizations v1.2
Is there a strategy?
Building High Performance Organizations Game by Agile Pain Relief Consulting is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
@mlevison

2. Hope is not a strategy

3. –Monty Python - The Spanish Inquisition
“Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and
fear...fear and surprise....”

4. Goal

5. “
Improve Wisdom
of the
Crowd
Resilience
Respond
to
Change
Sense
Playing
Field
Benefits of Being an Agile Organization

6. Sample Turn
5 min
Background
5 min
5 Turn
10-15 min
Debrief

7. Purpose of the Game

8. Game Context
• Table == an Organization with
multiple Teams
• 1 Turn == 4 Sprints == 8 Weeks ==
1 Release

10. Organizational Improvement
Team

12. Our
Portfolio
Kanban
Wall

13. Visualize Your Work

14. Map Your Portfolio
• Work Collaboratively
• Find Current Work in Progress
• Categorize and Map

15. Portfolio Kanban Walls

16. Agile Portfolio Management
is the art of deciding which
big picture items the
business wants to invest in
the medium term (3+
months)

17. Persona Cards
1. Take in Order
2. Private to You

18. Smallest Online Bookstore

19. Our Vision for Change:
“Build Quality In”

20. Game Setup
• Persona Card - take one and keep it secret
• Feature Cards - place in portfolio
• Operational Cards - left face down, in order
• Gremlin Cards - face down, shuffled
• Bank Balance - already on score sheet
• 1 Turn represents 1 Release (or 4 Sprints)

21. Game Play Single Turn
1. Choose Features
2. Place in Product
Backlog
3. Purchase Operational
Activities
4. Commit to Features -
Product Development
Teams complete - Initial
capacity 40 pts per
turn
5. Gremlins
6. Work Completed
7. Customer Satisfaction
8. Record Money
9. Return Cards
10.Retrospective

22. Sample Turn

23. Sample Turn
1 Purchase Features
• Featured Product
potential value $2,000
Story Points: 15
• Wishlist
potential value $2,500
Story Points 10

24. Sample Turn
2 Place in Product Backlog
• Team Product Owner’s order
• Wishlist, then Featured Product

25. Sample Turn
3 Purchase Operational Activities
Take top three Operational Activities
Purchase up to two each turn
Unused Operations cards are available in
subsequent rounds

26. Sample Turn
3 Purchase Operational Activities
• Team chooses to Purchase: Improve
Engineering Practice – cost $2500 and 8 Story
Points
• Capacity permanently improves by 4 Story
Points the turn after the card is bought. Effect of
all Regressions Gremlin is reduced by 2 points.

27. Sample Turn
4 Commit to Features
Each Product Development Team
Completes - Initial Capacity 40 pts per
turn
• Wishlist
• Featured Product

28. Sample Turn
5 Gremlins
Draw two
• Regression - reduce capacity by 5
story points (partial mitigation
“Improve Engineering Practices” +2) -
final effect -3
• Just Work Harder - reduce capacity
by 3 story points permanently

29. Sample Turn
6 Work Completed
• -8 Story Points for Improve
Engineering Practices
• -6 for two Gremlins
• Work Completed:
40 (base capacity) - (8 Backlog
Refinement + 6 Gremlins) = 26 pts

30. S
t
o
r
y
P
o
i
n
t
s
Com
plete
d
Starting
Points
- Cost of
Operational
Activities
- Gremlin
Temporary and
Permanent Effect
Net Complete
Round Points
40
8
(Improve
Engineering
Practice)
5 (Regression) – 2
(effect reduced by
Improved Engineering
Practices) = 3
3 (Just Work Harder)
= 3
28
+/-
in
Cap
acity
Starting
Points
+ Benefit of
Operational
Activities
- Gremlin
Permanent Effect
Starting
Points for
Next Round
40
4
(Improve
Engineering
Practice)
3 (Just Work Harder) 41
Score Sheet thus far

31. Sample Turn
Work Completed II
• 26 Story Points complete
• Record which Features complete (in order) -
Wishlist (10). Featured Product (15)
• Incomplete - None

32. Sample Turn
7 Customer Satisfaction Die Roll
Roll Customer
Payment
Percentage
1 Fail 0
2 Not happy 50%
3 Satisfied 75%
4-5 Happy 100%
6+ Overjoyed 125%

33. Roll Die

34. Sample Turn
Customer Satisfaction
• Wishlist – die roll: 3 – 75% of
Customer Value $2,500 = $1,875
paid.
• Featured Product – die roll: 2 – 50%
of Customer Value $2,000 = $1,000
paid

35. Score Sheet Cashflow
$
Starting
Cash
- Operations $
Costs
+ (Story $ Value
x Customer
Satisfaction)
* Completed
Stories ONLY
Net Cash
Balance
(becomes
Starting Cash
for next round)
$10,000
$2500
(Improve
Engineering
Practice)
$1875 (Wishlist, die
roll: 3 – 75% of
$2,500)
$1000 (Featured
Product, die roll: 2 –
50% of $2,000)
$10,375

36. Sample Turn
8 End

37. Sample Turn
9 & 10 End
• Shuffle Gremlin Cards back in
• Retrospective

38. Bankruptcy

39. Turn Steps
• Choose Features
• Place in Product
Backlog
• Purchase Operational
Activities - Purchase
max 2
• Commit to Features-
Complete ~40pts per
Sprint
• Gremlins
• Work Completed
• Customer Satisfaction
• Record Money
• Return Cards
• Retrospective

40. Round #3 - Hire an
Additional Team

41. Additional Team Costs

42. Gremlins

43. Weathervaning Exec
Chasing the Deal
Mitigated
• PO Empowered to say
No

44. Regression
Partial Mitigations:
• Why Agile - Quality?
• Improve Engineering Practices

45. Support Issue
Partial Mitigations:
• Walking Portfolio Kanban Wall with
Team
• Cross-Skilling

46. “Just Work Harder”
Mitigation
• Pro-social bonuses

47. Dark Work
aka Shadow IT
Partial Mitigation
• Walking the Portfolio Kanban Wall
Full Mitigation
• Clarified the Vision with Your Team

48. Micromanagement
Mitigation
• Coaching Executive Mindset

49. Team Member
Borrowed
or Poached
Partial
Mitigation
• Cross-Skilling

50. Not My Work
Partial Mitigations
• Cross-Skilling
• Pro-Social Bonuses

51. Bad Hire
Friend of a Friend :-(

52. Stack Ranking Introduced

53. 360 Degree Performance
Appraisals Introduced
360
Feedback
Boss
Peers
Team
Self
Clients

54. Not My Team’s Problem
It’s the Other Team’s Problem

55. Promotion to
Management

56. Hire a New Team Member
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Time
Productivity
Tuckman’s Model of Team formation

57. Operational Activities

58. Backlog Refinement

59. Sample Split

60. Power to Say NO
• Product Owner supported by Portfolio
Management

61. Improve Engineering
Practice

62. Optimizing for the Whole
What is the Goal?

63. Lean U/X

64. Concept
Prototype
Validate
Internally
Test
Externally
Learn
from user
behavior
Iterate
Just the UX process
#LeanUX | @jboogie

65. Clarify
Vision

66. Walk the Wall with the Teams
• Surface Dark Work

67. Management Talks to Team Members to
Understand their Personal Motivations

68. Eliminate Annual
Performance Review

69. Cross-Skilling

70. Clarify Why Agile - Quality
• Collaborative Strategy Deployment

71. Karl Scotland - @kjscotland - #abe15 http://availagility.co.uk

72. Improve Interviewing
Practices

73. Coach Mindsets

74. Team Level Bonuses

75. Pro-Social Bonuses

76. Dual Track Career Paths

77. Build Quality…
….Speed will follow.
Focus on Speed, there will be no
Quality

78. Closing

79. Complexity
Experiments and Evolution
trump
Planned Change Models

80. Many Minds
Over
Central Decision Making

81. Game Weaknesses
• Too optimistic
• Benefits accrue too quickly
• No drag effects from Technical Debt
• Engineering Practice details ignored

82. References
• Game Posted - https://agilepainrelief.com/building-
high-performance-organizations-game
• Lean Kit - Map Your Project Portfolio: http://
leankit.com/blog/2014/02/map-your-process-with-
kanban/
• Lean UX: https://agilepainrelief.com/product-
owner-resources-and-references#usability
• Kanban: https://agilepainrelief.com/scrummaster-
resources-and-references#kanban

83. References #2
• Prosocial Bonuses: https://agilepainrelief.com/
scrummaster-resources-and-references#pay-for-
performance
• Portfolio Management: https://agilepainrelief.com/
scrummaster-resources-and-references#portfolio-
management
• Complexity - Cynefin: http://
www.everydaykanban.com/2013/09/29/
understanding-the-cynefin-framework/ and https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework