Cards to accompany the game 'Who wants to be a remote facilitator?' Just for fun! Draft link to Medium Post with the rules of the game is here: https://medium.com/serious-scrum/who-wants-to-be-a-remote-facilitator-b5ece866b45b

1. WWTBARF
Co-Located Participant Card #1
Paddy Corry, Serious ScrumPaddy Corry, Serious Scrum
Co-Located Participant Card #1
Catchphrase: ‘I don’t understand why this is so difficult!
Aren’t we a technology company?’
Character:
You sympathise with the Scrum Master, but genuinely
you don’t have the time to be messing with
microphones or cameras, and you just wants the team
to be ready when he gets there.
The Scrum Master is clearly not up to speed on the
technology, and the whole team are suffering as a
result.
More and more, you're growing increasingly anxious
that the team are not going to deliver work items simply
because of an inability to co-ordinate and agree on silly
things like the tool we use to have calls... Ridiculous!
Sure, there have been a few disagreements with the
team on the details of some of the User Stories too, but
it’s hard to even get to that when we are fighting with
sound and vision. It should be easier than this!
Frank - PO - Dublin Frank - PO - Dublin
When Penelope’s noisy environment starts, be very
vocal about it.
If anyone needs to drop off the call, complain about
that.
Jane might start talking about the tools the team
uses, and it keeps derailing things so please let her
know.
Special Dramatic Instructions:
Frank has a starring role in this game :)
Get on the Scrum Master’s case when remote people
don’t respond (or misbehave!).
General complaints to the room are good, like obviously
sighing or rolling your eyes when things aren’t running
smoothly, but please use at least one pointed comment,
something like ‘could we not have prepared the A/V for
this meeting beforehand?’
3 things will could potentially wind you up on this call:
WWTBARF

2. WWTBARF
Co-Located Participant Card #3
Paddy Corry, Serious ScrumPaddy Corry, Serious Scrum
Co-Located Participant Card #2
Catchphrase:
“I don’t understand why we can’t just use Bluejeans for
this…”
Character:
Disagrees with the remote people about the tools that
are used for the meeting. Believes that we would get
better results if we just switched to… I don’t know…
bluejeans? Why not. Bluejeans. (FYI I have no allegiance
here, it could be any tool as long as it is not the one
used to host the call!)
Special Dramatic Instructions:
Jane recently had a disagreement with Tom over a Bug
that was raised which Jane believed was a Change
Request. Ultimately, the User Story didn’t include
anything related to the thing that Tom asked for, so she
asked him to change it. He refused and he was quite
rude about it!At an opportune moment of your
choosing, introduce your catchphrase to divert the
conversation into one about the right tool to be using.
Do it at a chaotic moment or a quiet one, your choice :)
Jane - Developer - Dublin Jim - Developer - Dublin
Catchphrase:
“This is Jim Speaking”
Character:
Jim is a model of good behaviour and inclusivity as far as
the remote participants are concerned. He always
introduces himself when he starts to speak, and his
working relationships with the remote team members
are all good.
Special Dramatic Instructions:
Help the facilitator and the Product Owner get through
the refinement. You enjoy these sessions, even if they
are a little rough and ready sometimes!
WWTBARF

3. Remote Participant Card #1
Paddy Corry, Serious ScrumPaddy Corry, Serious Scrum
Remote Participant Card #2
Catchphrase:
“Could you repeat that?”
Character:
Tom stays on silent with camera off. When asked a
direct question, asks for it to be repeated, then asks for
a bit more context. Tom has joined this meeting with
the intention of working on something else while the
meeting is going on. He is always overloaded in the
Sprint and needs to get Charlie’s code review completed
before the end of the day. That’s more important than
refinement, right? Anyway these meetings disintegrate
into chaos so often, so Tom doesn’t feel guilty about it.
Special Dramatic Instructions:
Jane has been on Tom’s case recently over that bug
from last week. In Tom’s mind it was a bug, and it was
pretty clear if you read the User Story. She saw it
differently though, so he told her what he thought of
that. 7 minutes into the meeting you will finish the code
review, and submit to Charlie. He will then drop off the
refinement call, and you will join in, asking for a recap.
Tom - Developer - Bilbao Charlie - Developer - Bilbao
Catchphrase:
“Sorry, it’s hard to keep track of what is going on, there
are a lot of people talking!”
Character:
Rightly or wrongly, Charlie believes that the guys in
Dublin don’t pay any attention to the remote folks in
meetings. It’s really hard to hear their conversation, and
only Jim knows how to include the Bilbao group. In
particular, Charlie believes it is hard to interpret User
Stories after refinement, so he gets frustrated quickly
and is a little defensive when asked questions.
Special Dramatic Instructions:
7 minutes into the meeting, you will have to go, as your
code review with Tom will be finished. Apologise and
leave the call. This is related to delivery after all!
WWTBARF WWTBARF

4. Remote Participant Card #3
Paddy Corry, Serious ScrumPaddy Corry, Serious Scrum
Remote Participant Card #4
Catchphrase:
“Hello, it’s Simon, can you hear me?”
Character:
The laptop that the company sent has had problems
with AV since day one, and it is so frustrating. You have
logged numerous Helpdesk tickets, and the Scrum
Master has been helping move the requests along, but it
looks like you’ll need a new laptop to get the situation
resolved. This issue makes it really hard to participate
with the team’s discussions.
Special Dramatic Instructions:
Remains silent for the first 4 minutes. Joins the meeting
and uses his catchphrase, but cannot hear anything that
people are saying in the room. Continues to ask if they
can hear him for a total of 8 times. Please count them :)
Even if you can hear everyone, do not let on that you
can… voice your frustration with the AV issue a couple of
times too…
Simon - Tester - Bilbao Penelope - Tester - Bilbao
Catchphrase:
“I’ll catch up with Frank offline.”
Character:
Penelope is a senior member of the team, and enjoys
one to one calls with team members. She finds
refinement conversations really painful though. Today,
she has to collect her partner from the airport, so she
has arrived early in order to take the call. Unfortunately
she doesn’t have the noise cancelling microphone with
her, but it should be fine...
Special Dramatic Instructions:
Background noise! It could be anything: a barking dog,
hammering, a coffee maker or a train station. Every time
Penelope takes her mic off mute, the background noise
makes it hard for anyone to hear.After everyone
complains enough times, admit defeat, use your
catchphrase and go on mute.
WWTBARFWWTBARF

5. Observer Card #1
Paddy Corry, Serious ScrumPaddy Corry, Serious Scrum
Observer Card #2
Behaviours that you think helped the meeting make
progress towards the outcome
Behaviours that you think hindered the meeting
make progress towards the outcome
The Facilitator's task is to get one user story refined.
There are 15 minutes available to achieve this outcome.
As an observer, please take note of two things that
happen over the course of the meeting:
You are an observer You are an observer
Behaviours that you think helped the meeting make
progress towards the outcome
Behaviours that you think hindered the meeting
make progress towards the outcome
The Facilitator's task is to get one user story refined.
There are 15 minutes available to achieve this outcome.
As an observer, please take note of two things that
happen over the course of the meeting:
WWTBARF WWTBARF

6. WWTBARF
Facilitator Card
Paddy Corry, Serious ScrumPaddy Corry, Serious Scrum
WWTBARF
User Story Card
You need to get one user stories refined in this session,
and you have 15 minutes to do it. After that the 'Meetup'
room will be no longer available.
The User Story has been drafted by Frank, and went
through refinement once already, but the team could
not agree on whether it was ready.
There have been frequent issues including remote team
members in previous refinement discussions, and the
team are getting frustrated with that. The team’s PO is
particularly annoyed.
You have just received a note from Simon, a remote
tester, that his laptop is still giving problems, so he
might not be able to join the session. Please inform the
team before starting.
In addition, there are some tensions between remote
and co-located team members to navigate. Jane
recently has been struggling to get on with Tom, and
the conflict is tricky.
You are the facilitator... good luck! This is the User Story! (So Far)
As a high net worth individual
I would like to lodge a lump sum to my account
So that I can save more and see the value of my savings
go up.
Acceptance Criteria (so far)
Given an active account holder signed in
When they lodge an amount between x and y
Then the transfer of funds will complete
And they will be redirected to their new balance
Given an active account holder signed in
When they try to lodge an amount outside the range
Then they will see a friendly warning
And will be unable to proceed
Given 1,000 active account holders signed in
When they all try to lodge an amount between x and y
And they all try at the same time
Then all lodgements will complete as normal
And all users will be redirected to their new balance