We’re Gamestorming!
by Abra Ungeheuer on March 7th, 2011 at 10:51 am
Here at Asynchrony Solutions, we’ve been Gamestorming. Similar to retrospective activities, Gamestorming provides a way to draw out ideas from a particular group of people in an innovative, creative way.
Some of the Gamestorming activities I have witnessed over the past few weeks include the $100 Test, Dot Voting and Who Do. The $100 Test takes the lead as my favorite activity to date. The premise of this game is that it helps a group prioritize a list of topics proposed for discussion. Two things set this game apart: It draws out a reason why the topic should be discussed, and it offers a less arbitrary way for the group to prioritize a list of topics. As a facilitator, I often catch myself generating a list of topics for a meeting without truly understanding the reason why a certain topic is being brought up. Allowing the person to state a reason for the topic helps eliminate discussion around items that really have no place in the forum. It also raises issues other participants may not have considered.
In the $100 Test game, once the list is generated, the group is given a set amount of time to allocate a dollar value to each topic. Each topic must be given a value, with the total value equaling $100. In my experience, two minutes is a good time limit for a group of 6-8 people to allocate value as it forces everyone to prioritize the list quickly.
Next time you find yourself in charge of a meeting or facilitating a brainstorming discussion, I challenge you to Go Gamestorm!
Cumulative-flow diagram can double as timeline
by mphilip on February 22nd, 2011 at 10:35 am
If you’re using kanban in your environment, you probably use a cumulative-flow diagram. It’s a handy tool to track kanban metrics like cycle time and to quickly see bottlenecks. In addition to all the kanban goodness it gives you, it can also double as a timeline that you can use in your retrospectives.
Whether you use a physical version posted on your kanban board (like my current team does) or an electronic one, you can annotate dates with important events, such as when:
- A team member joins or leaves
- An unexpected technical problem surfaces, like a major refactoring or bug
- The team decides to change something about its kanban, like increase a WIP limit
It’s pretty easy to do, especially if you have a physical chart that you update during your standup meeting.
Then, when you have a retrospective, bring the diagram along to help you remember what happened during the period over which you’re retrospecting. If you’re anything like me, you have a hard time remembering what happened beyond yesterday, so it’s handy to have a reference. Having this time-based information will help you make more objective decisions about how to improve, since you won’t be guessing so much as to why your cycle time lengthened over the last week, or why you decided to decrease a WIP limit a month ago.
How great is your standup meeting?
by Abra Ungeheuer on December 22nd, 2010 at 9:30 am
In a recent retrospective, our team identified a lack of satisfaction in our standup meetings. Some days they provided too much information; other days, not enough. Our meetings lacked a certain energy. Brian Button suggested a way for each of us measure our satisfaction with the standup meeting.
To do this, we posted a big visible chart in the war room where team members could mark down how they felt about the standup on a particular day. At the conclusion of each standup, everyone attending was asked to make a tic mark on the spectrum (see picture below) to rate their satisfaction with the standup. We stacked a couple of weeks worth of lines onto a single chart, so we could easily see trends between meetings. The chart served as a way to encourage conversation about the standup. A few days each week, we looked at the chart collectively, encouraging one another to explain why certain standups were better or worse than others. We continued to track the satisfaction level until we felt we regained the energy we desired.
Asynchrony Twitter Feed
- asynchrony: Debuting on Twitter: Our new logo! We'll be rolling the new look out to the website soon! Kudos to our designers for their hard work. April 27, 2012
- asynchrony: Tonight is @STLMobileDev! @MarkSawyier on his startup, @BonfyreApp; @markshiz on cross-platform dev with Android NDK. Talks start at 6:30p! March 22, 2012
- asynchrony: RT @railsgrammer: Kanban: It changed my life. A new post at @asynchrony 's blog http://t.co/cHTryvNi February 9, 2012
- asynchrony: RT @StlMobileDev: Thu Jan 26th: Doors: 6p Talks: 6:30p. @jessitron on Android storage; Srdjan Grubor on a factory dashboard for Android. ... January 24, 2012
- asynchrony: RT @SandiStJohn: Asynchrony is looking to hire java/andriod developers for perm opportunities. Call me today for more details 314-678- ... January 11, 2012
