Improving the Scrum framework results in rapid deliveries and, as a result. More product outcomes. All this happens because of iteration. In order to improve agile practices, agile software development teams use iterations. A scrum master leads the development team and enforces agile principles and values in order to get the desired outcomes.
To make things a bit more fun and help team members learn these approaches, agile games help think and promote continuous improvements throughout the process. These games play a bridge between goals and hard work while keeping things fun.
Here are some fun retrospective games for your agile team:
What are agile games?
Before starting with a list of agile games, one must be thinking, What are agile games? Well, not to disappoint, but these are online games that are played between teams to nurture any team’s effectiveness. This helps in getting everyone to work towards a common goal. When they start collaborating on the projects, everyone, especially the product owner, wins.
These team-building exercises help agile teams implement better methodologies, resulting in new learning and iteration. Not only this, playing these games creates a sense of team and helps in building a collaborative team which is a dream of every project manager.
By playing these games, agile teams improve not only their problem-solving abilities but also other benefits that they get by going through the process.
Fun agile games for teams
Speaking of agile games, there are many that you can use to start playing in order to help your team get familiar with agile software. Most of these games are ice breakers, specifically designed for introverted members of a team, to help them fully participate in the Scrum practices. Not only this, these games are designed to help teams handle high pressure in a particular environment which leads to multitasking skills as well.
So, now you must be out of patience to learn about what agile games are out there. Well, let’s not test your patience anymore. Here are the 5 fun agile games that you can play with your team:
1. How to Hug
Time: 5+ minutes
Players: 3+
In-person or virtual: Virtual only
Objectives: Agile team collaboration
This is a virtual game with an Agile team collaboration objective. While it lasts five minutes, three (or more) can play this game only virtually. How to hug is an icebreaker game for introducing new team members to each other, especially the ones who are working remotely.
This team-building activity can be accessed online; hence team members who are working from home can also join this activity. In this game, the team members upload their photos for display on the virtual circle and later vote to place their image at the center of the circle. While it sounds like a simple activity, this helps create team bonds, resulting in a great team.
2. Chocolate Bar Game
Time: 5 minutes
Players: 4+
In-person or virtual: Both
Objectives: Team building for customer feedback and iteration
If your team is unfamiliar with agile practices, this is the right game for them. This game’s playing time is five minutes and can be played by 4 or more people. The objective of this game is a team-building activity for customer iteration and feedback. The game can be played by the whole team as virtual or in-person. As the members play this game, the teamwork improves, and they learn more about iteration. The game can also be played by the entire team to understand how to integrate customer feedback into their retrospective.
3. Ball Point game
Time: 15+ minutes (3-minute sprints)
Players: 4+
In-person or virtual: Both
Objectives: Agile production process
The ballpoint game takes almost fifteen minutes to play, in which three minutes are for sprints. The game can be played either in-person or virtual with a minimum of four players and space for more. The learning objective for the Ball Point game is the agile production process.
In this game, the team passes a ball around the table, and members of each team touch the ball once. When the ball makes it all the way around the table, one point is given to the team.
4. Marshmallow Tower
Time: 20+ minutes
Players: 4+ players
In-person or virtual: In-person only
Objectives: Iteration and collaboration
For this activity, a team needs:
- One yard of tape
- Dry spaghetti
- One yard of string
- Marshmallows
These games can transform the lives of teams. These team-building activities can help ease a member’s interest in an agile family.
Since the Scrum Master leads the teams, and in this case, too, he hands out 20 pieces of spaghetti to each team. The game’s objective is to build the highest marshmallow tower with these items. The concept sounds easy, but its execution is exemplary.
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