Agile Arcade - No Estimates Game with Steve Wells

As Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters, theres nothing we like better than a bit of gamification. What's better than getting a bunch of people round a table and exploring agile concepts with lego and postits? But, with working remotely rapidly becoming the new normal, how can we do this without it being a clunky, confusing, and ultimately disengaging experience.

During lockdown, we've been exploring this idea and have built a number of games, activities and simulations at http://agilesimulations.co.uk.

At this meetup, we're going to play one as an example; Matt Philip's No Estimates game. This is a great way to see how engaging and interesting online workshops can be if they are properly designed to be fully interactive, responsive and meaningful to attendees.

This is much more than just showcasing how remote tech. can work, though. The No Estimates game allows us to explore sources of variation in estimation and demonstrates to even the most skeptical why such estimates can never be accurate, however complete our information about what we are trying to build.

From that realisation, we can explore better and more accurate ways to answer the perennial question of all stakeholders, POs and PMs - "when will my stuff be delivered?"

So, we get to play a fun and engaging game, and we learn how to forecast software delivery dates. And yes, it's a workshop, but just bring yourselves - no postits or Sharpies needed for this one...