“Scrum is easy to understand but difficult to master.”
Yes! It’s like when you play chess, the rule is easy to understand but difficult to win. It needs practice again and again to master it. When I hold a Scrum class, I had the same problem: how can I help my trainees become Professional Scrum Master, not only to understand Scrum but also to practice it.
I spent my time researching Simulation Scrum Games. There are some games like Lego4Scrum, Scrum Card… but they were not what I was looking for. I need a game that helps my trainees practice Scrum in a real-world setting. They need to face what happens in a real Scrum team every day, so they can improve and know how to handle these situations.
The game I need is also easy to play and fun, but after that, it keeps the team focused, burns their brain to play, and helps them deal with the problem while delivering. From that, they transform the theory into knowledge by themselves. It took a couple of months to research. I decided to build a game myself, first just a simple prototype to test how my trainees react to it. I got some feedback (both good and bad), and they gave me more opportunities to improve the game. Until now, I think it’s the right time to make the game public.
Values of my Simulation Scrum Game:
- Easy to set up and play.
- Fun.
- It simulates real situations teams face every day.
- Whether you play as Product Owner, Scrum Master or Developer, you still have lessons to learn. Everybody plays and learns.
The game uses Lego to play (optional; you can use anything else if it works), like Lego4Scrum. But a key is: I created some cards: Roles, Team Issues, Coins, and Impediments cards. They make the game challenging and real. In the Sprint, the team needs to roll a dice to know what issue or impediment they need to deal with.
The game also includes time boxes and events, as in real Scrum (as defined in the Scrum Guide). But it is simulated, so each sprint takes only 45 minutes, and you will play a game over 2 to 3 Sprints to build a product.
