http://leankanban.fr/ Workplay : the gamified future of agile development, Fri 4th October

1. Workplay: The gamified future
of agile development
#lkfr13 @mattphilip

2. WHAT IF WORK WERE
MORE LIKE A GAME?
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

3. What’s next for knowledge work?
2001-2012
! Continuous integration,
delivery, design, feedback,
improvement
2013+
! Continuous play
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

4. Continuous play = gamified work
Gamification is integrating game
thinking and design into
activities to increase
engagement, learning and fun.
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

5. Where did it come from?
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

6. So what is this talk about (and not about)?
Gamified services
(e.g., Foursquare)
Applying game thinking
to daily work
Gamification as a way to
build in continual,
reflective improvement
Marketing
and loyalty
programs
Discussing how agile
teams have a head start
A mission of our own!
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame
Experience report
Using games solely for
training or planning
(a.k.a. serious games)

7. Our mission today (if you choose to accept it!)
We are going to work together in guilds
to …
! Stay awake
! Create and share our ideas with the
world (via twitter)!
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

8. Create a character
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

9. Create a character
! Player name (you)
! Character name (made up)
! Class (Ruby Warrior,
Kanban Wizard, etc.)
! Level (agile experience)
! Guild (organization, team)
! Spells and special skills
(org-change magic,
analysis spell, ninja
coding)
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

10. Why gamify?
Personal
Organizational
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

11. Defining traits of a game
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

12. Reeves and Reed’s 10 ingredients for games
1. Self-representation with
avatars
2. 3D environments
3. Narrative context
4. Feedback
5. Reputation, Ranks and
Levels
6. Marketplace and
economics
7. Competition under
explicit, enforced rules
8. Teams
9. Parallel, reconfigurable
communication systems
10. Time pressure
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

13. Is agile the key intersection?
play
work
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame
agile

14. Work-‐play mirror
1. Pair up within your guild
2. On a piece of paper, make a table with
two columns: Work and Play
3. List as many of your experiences that are
common to both
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

15. A different kind of “flow”
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

16. Csikszentmihalyi’s 9 features of flow
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Clear goals at every step
Immediate feedback
Balance between challenge and skill
Merger of action and awareness
Exclusion of distractions
No worries about failure
Absence of self-consciousness
Time becomes distorted
The experience is an end in itself
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

17. Steps to flow – and how agile can provide them
! Set an overall goal (and
many realistic subgoals)
! Measure progress of goals
! Concentrate on task and
keep making finer
distinctions in challenges
! Develop skills to meet
challenge
! Value < Feature < Story
! Running tested features,
cycle time
! Refactor mercilessly,
incrementally develop, testdrive development
! Pair, practice katas
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

18. Intrinsic rewards
!
!
!
!
!
Satisfying work
Experience (or at least the hope) of being successful
Social connection
Meaning
Pink’s 3 key’s of motivation
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

19. Creating “Flow”
1. Pick a simple, mundane task that you don’t
experience flow with today and plot it on
the flow diagram.
2. How might you gamify it to create a flow
experience?
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

20. HOW AGILE AND KANBAN ARE
LIKE A GAME
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

21. Voluntary, participatory success
! Voluntary discipline
! Self-organizing teams
! Teams built around motivated
individuals
! Collaborative improvement
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

22. Quest-‐like work
! Stories
! Narratives
! Spikes
As a tea
m memb
er
I want t
o gamify
our work
So that
I can fe
el like
I’m not e
ven wor
king
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

23. Visible progress and rules
!
!
!
!
TDD (rules)
WIP limits, explicit policies
Continuous-integration build monitors
Card wall
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

24. Feedback
!
!
!
!
Customer
Team
System
Process
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

25. Intensify the feedback
1. Quickly list as many forms of feedback as
possible that you get on your team.
2. Brainstorm ways to intensify those
feedback moments.
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

26. High levels of communication
Realtime, face-to-face
communication
! Pairing to solve problems
!
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

27. Game dimensions
!
!
!
!
!
Get to the other side (Complete the iteration, feature)
Visit all the map (Unlock “secrets” by technical discovery)
Time limits (Velocity metrics, iteration time box)
Finite or infinite (“iteration-less” development)
Competitive or cooperative
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

28. CREATING CONTINUOUS PLAY
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

29. Something bigger than ourselves
! What is the organization about
and where do we fit in?
! The “Why” of work (Sinek’s
“golden circle”)
! Epic context for action
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

30. What’s your story?
1. Decide what kind of game narrative suits
your work.
2. Elaborate on that narrative.
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

31. Know your players
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

32. Project inception
! Team members create characters,
identify what they’ll need
! Game designer works with customer
to create narrative
! Customer helps map out quests,
assigns virtual monetary value
! Designer and customer determine
what it means to win, rules, virtual
currency and rewards
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

33. Project initiation (iteration 0)
! Team members mini-quest for
their equipment
! Game designer tells the team the
narrative
! Team sets goals for first missions
! Guild leadership
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

34. Develop and deliver
Gamify small components
to address pain points
! Hackathons and secret
missions to destroy bug
“bosses”
! Use retrospectives, Toyota
kata to “mod” the game
! Measure the impact
! Monitor flow experience
!
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

35. Visualize progress
! Story mapping>
quest maps
! Pairing charts >
character profiles
! Build in clear
rewards
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

36. Leveling up as self-‐improvement
! Flow experience supported by
sustainable pace
! Reflect recognition and
reputation
! Encourage team members to
view their job as self
improvement
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

37. Software craftsmanship
! Craftsmanship over crap
(Uncle Bob)
! Craftsmanship manifesto
! Apprentice > Journeyman >
Master
! Kvell and naches emotions
(mentoring pride)
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

38. ENDGAME
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

39. Dangers
! You can’t just spawn a new
project after failing
! Could depersonalize rather
than personalize
! No one game can please all
! Gaming and misuse of metrics
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

40. How do we conquer this new quest?
! Use agile and kanban principles (start where you are, increment,
iterate, improve, respect)
! Focus on the intrinsic first (extrinsic will come)
! Voluntary participation
! Give autonomy to teams to design their own games (and fail)
! Lightweight, both in implementation and tone (i.e., fun)
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

41. Final “Boss”
1. List three things blocking you from
gamifying.
2. With a pair, come up with a possible
solution for them.
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

42. Before your next quest…
Books:
! Flow
! A Theory of Fun
! Total Engagement
! Reality is Broken
! Gamestorming
Other:
! http://www.delicious.com/matthew.philip/gamification
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame

43. gg
! mphilip@thoughtworks.com
! @mattphilip
Gamification > How agile and kanban are like a game > Creating continuous play > Endgame