While having a chat with Naresh Jain, he suggested me to go through the Ted Talk – “Gaming can make a better world” by Jane McGonigal. I found the title very weird and was wondering how is that possible? After going through the talk though, I was amazed. I started wondering if I can use the gamification technique in Agile Adoption, in our Products, in Performance Management Systems, in Employee Engagement Programs? Dhaval Dalal introduced me to Prof. Kevin Werbach’s definition of Gamification – “The use of game elements and game design techniques in non-game contexts.” http://ashishparkhi.com/2014/10/26/gamifying-agile-adoption-an-experiment/

2. Gamifying Agile
Adoption - An
Experiment
ashish.parkhi@ideas.com naresh@agilefaqs.com
@AshishParkhi @nashjain
ashishparkhi.com nareshjain.com

3. “Gaming can make a better world” by Jane
McGonigal

4. Gamification is ...
Image Source - http://i.imgur.com/c7LaV4v.jpg
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5zukh_jl8kM/maxresdefault.jpg

5. Gamification is everywhere..

6. Idea - Gamifying Agile Adoption
Source: https://www.atlassian.com/company/about/shipit
Every quarter, we give employees the chance to work on
anything that relates to our products, and deliver it during
ShipIt Day, our 24-hour hackathon. Been wanting to build
that plugin, redesign that interface, or completely rethink
that feature that’s been bugging you? You’ve got 24
hours...go!

7. Challenges
Image Source - http://www.energizedwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/responsibility.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcThmCnmvR8b0X7EPSDxtvW94TtMRNzA2f-
NBKcrH9NHqLnL4X0oag
• Responsibility & Accountability: Greater accountability eliminates the time and
energy spent in unproductive behavior that produces wasted effort, but what we see
in practice is that when the team is collectively accountable, only few actually carry
the burden of being responsible and accountable.
Actual VS. Expected

8. IDeaS Rock Star – Original Leader Board

9. IDeaS Rock Star – Original Levels

10. IDeaS Rock Star – Badges

11. IDeaS Rock Star – New Leaderboard with Badges

12. IDeaS Rock Star – Displayed in our Development area

13. Challenges
Image Source: http://image.slidesharecdn.com/enabingdevopsinansdnworld-140624081015-phpapp01/95/enabing-devops-
in-an-sdn-world-3-638.jpg?cb=1403615452
• SD & QA should work together for it creates a strong sense of shared purpose –
but what we see in reality is that developers think their job is done once they commit
the code and testers think their job is done after filing a bug.
Actual VS. Expected

14. IDeaS Rock Star – User Profile - Delivery Champ

15. IDeaS Rock Star – User Profile - Spillover Champ

16. Challenges
• For every change to the production code, appropriate tests should be added for
they being fast, reliable, comprehensive and repeatable, giving you faster feedback –
but what we see in reality is that sporadic tests are added and focus is on manual
tests.
Actual ExpectedVS.

17. IDeaS Rock Star – User Profile - Test Champ

18. Challenges
Image Source: unknown
• Code should be checked-in frequently for better collaboration – but developers
tend to checkin code towards the end of the sprint.

19. IDeaS Rock Star – User Profile - Frequent Code
Committer

20. Challenges
Image Source - https://img0.etsystatic.com/000/0/6245631/il_570xN.350861662.jpg
• Broken builds should be fixed quickly else it leads to “Broken Window
Syndrome“– and in reality the broken builds are left for someone else to fix it and
teams start feeling that it is ok to have broken builds, leading to more broken builds
and waste of time.

21. IDeaS Rock Star – User Profile - Build Breaker

22. Challenges
Image Source -
http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/progressive_development/WindowsLiveWriter/MotleysaysVerticalSlicesSoundslikesometh_
13F19/image_thumb_1.png
• Stories should be small and vertically sliced for them to provide focus, a short
horizon and gives team the flexibility to reconfigure and adapt to new discoveries or
changes – but what we see in reality is that stories are not sliced well and teams
make late discoveries.

23. IDeaS Rock Star – User Profile - Delivery Champ

24. Challenges
Image Source: unknown
• Team should ensure that iteration commitments are met for that gives an
element of reliability if they can fulfil the commitments consistently. Helps better
planning – but what we see in reality is that individuals only focus on their own
stories, lot of efforts are put, but nothing is complete and usable.

25. Challenges
Image Source: http://www.descentstage.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/imagesdddm_cfa.jpg
• Rally should be updated daily for better tracking and visibility, based on which
necessary mid-sprint adjustments can be made – but what we see in practice is that
the data is not updated correctly leading to bad decisions.

26. IDeaS Rock Star – User Profile - Process Violator

27. Iteration Burndown

28. Velocity
• 7.2 Iteration 8 is when the IDeaS Star Program started crediting/deducting stars.
• So far this has been the best iteration
– in terms of recording the data.
– in terms of within iteration story acceptance.

29. IDeaS Rock Star – My Board

30. IDeaS Rock Star – Appreciate Someone

31. IDeaS Rock Star – Create a new Mission

32. IDeaS Rock Star – Claim Stars

33. Velocity

34. Rock Star Is Open Source
• https://github.com/IDeaSCo/rockstar
• https://github.com/IDeaSCo/rockstar-plugins-rally
• https://github.com/IDeaSCo/rockstar-plugins-jenkins-ci-game

35. Next Steps
• Work on plugins e.g. SonarCube, Gerrit, Git, Travis CI.
• Continuously work on making the game more
engaging.
• Host Rock Star online so that players can create their
lifetime stats.
• Ability to share player stats on social media.

36. © Copyright Integrated Decisions and Systems, Inc. (IDeaS – A SAS COMPANY)
Visit IDeaS online at www.ideas.com
Thank you.
ashish.parkhi@ideas.com naresh@agilefaqs.com
@AshishParkhi @nashjain
ashishparkhi.com nareshjain.com