Agile Development with SCRUM (COMP1807)

#Lego4Scrum: Scrum Simulation/Hackathon with Lego

Source: Lego4Scrum Alexey Krivitsky (2011)

Instructions:
1) You will have to work in your coursework groups. Each member of the group will act
as the Development Team. One of you, which you will need to decide who, will also have
the role of a Scrum Master facilitating the process.
2) Your course tutor will act as your Product Owner, providing you with the Product Vision,
the requirements and any further information you may need for clarifying ambiguity of
requirements throughout the process.
3) All students need to be in attendance for the Lego4Scrum Hackathon.

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Rules of Play
The goal of the Game is to simulate every aspect of the Scrum process learned in theory throughout
the past few weeks. The Development team and the Scrum Master will have to put in practice
everything learned during the theoretical part to build a Lego city.

The simulation has natural three parts: pre-game, game, and post-game or debrief. The whole
game will take approximately 120 minutes.

Pre-game
 Organizing teams
 Defining the Process and Project chartering
 Building the Backlog
 Estimating

Game
 Sprint Planning
 Sprint
 Sprint Review
 Sprint Retrospective

Post-game
 Debriefing
The game will dedicate specific time to the various phases. Timings are fixed.

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Pre-Game:
 Step 1: Team organising (3 minutes)
The development team get together choose their Scrum Master and go to their tables.

 Step 2: Project Chartering and defining the process (5 minutes)

The Product Owner communicates the following messages.
o All teams will be building a single product –they work for the same vendor and the vendor has
the final say as to which city they will decide to choose.
o The product is a CITY with certain features.
o The main building elements are LEGOs, though any other material can be used in addition.
Use your creativity (bottles, tape, boxes etc.)
o The product owner (your tutor) is the main decision maker of the product – it is the PO’s city.
o The Product Owner will be involved in the development process by being available to answer
questions and provide feedback.
o The product Owner communicates the Product Vision to the teams.

 Step 3: Building the Backlog (15 minutes)

- The Product Owner will provide the teams with some user stories cards that have been added
to the Product Backlog.
- Usually this will include the following items (detailed user stories will be provided on the
day):
o One storey houses (4 of them)
o Two storey building (3 of them)
o Kiosk
o Fire station
o Hospital
o Bus stop
o School
o Road (can be drawn)
o Park (can be drawn)
o River (can be drawn)
o Bridge
Some of the items can be drawn on flip chart paper, and then the LEGOs are on top.
- The PO briefly explains the acceptance criteria (Definition of Done) and what he/she thinks
each product backlog item/user story may look like.

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 - Teams can ask questions on stories or requirements.
 Step 4: Estimating (Planning Poker) (20 minutes)
- The development team plays Planning Poker and write the estimation points on each user story
card.
- The team creates the swim-lanes wall (an example is provided below – the swim lanes need to
include all the user story points from 1 2 3 5 8 13 20 40 100). You can either use a flipchart
which you stick on the wall and it consists of the various columns with the user stories stick
under the appropriate user story point, or you can just do it on the wall.

- Those user stories that have been estimated by the team with 13 20 40 100 points, will need to
be broken down into smaller stories.
- Write these smaller user stories on post it notes and stick them on the backlog. Re-estimate
them and move them to the swim lanes.

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Game:
Step 1: Sprint Planning (3 minutes)
- Now that the user stories are estimated, you have to move them from the Swimlanes Wall back to
the Backlog.
- Start with the first sprint planning meeting, and prepare to run 3 Sprints and execute as much as
possible of the Backlog.
- The development team now will need to commit to some user stories that will be implemented in
the upcoming sprint and make an initial task breakdown for each story (due to time constraints the
teams may wish to break down into tasks only 1 or 2 of those user stories that will be implemented
in the next Sprint just for the sake of the simulation). They can then continue working with user
stories instead of tasks. Assign teams members to work on the different stories.
- Create your Sprint Backlog. You can use a flip chart for that and stick it on the wall. Put the stories
to be implemented in the upcoming Sprint in the To Do Column. The various tasks for each user
story to the To do column. As the Sprint progresses and tasks are being completed move them
through to the Done Column.
- At the end of the Sprint, the Product Owner will tell you how many Sprints you will have for the
release of the full Lego City Product. Below are the activities included in a Sprint and their timings.
1. Sprint #1
a. Planning – 3 minutes
b. Sprinting – 7 minutes
c. Review – 5 minutes
d. Retrospective – 3 minutes

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Step 2: Sprint (7 minutes)
- The fun part begins. Start implementing your user stories and building your City. Remember to
update your Scrum/Kanban board as the Sprint progresses and the user stories are being completed.
- The development team should also create the Sprint Burndown chart which they should update
frequently throughout the Sprint. Calculate the total user points of the user stories to be
implemented in the Sprint. Plot the work remaining in the burndown chart.
 Assume that every Sprint is a 2 day Sprint, each day is 3.5 minutes. The burndown chart
therefore could be updated twice in the Sprint by the Scrum Master.
 The Scrum Master for every team could actually create the team’s Planning wall updating
how much work has been actually completed in every Sprint. Sample example is provided
below.

Step 3: Sprint Review (5 minutes)

- The development team should present their “lego increment” to the Product Owner for approval
- The team should explain what they have done and how this meet’s the Definition of Done
- Another team should be there acting as the Observers.

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Step 4: Sprint Retrospective (3 minutes)
- Time for a retrospective. After every sprint, the team should have a short retrospective. Key is to
improve the process followed and improve as a team.
- Each member could write on a post it note:
Stop, what should we stop doing?
Start, what should we start doing?
Continue, what should we continue doing?
Whom would you like to compliment?
- Each member should then Vote, which of the following improvements should take forward to the
next Sprint.

Post Game:
Final Step: Debriefing (10 minutes)
All students should gather in a circle, a facilitated discussion occurs around the experience.

Acknowledgements
https://www.lego4scrum.com/ Alexey Krivitsky (author of Lego4Scrum)
https://www.agile42.com/
https://agilestrides.com/

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