Using Innovation Games® ToIdentify & Prioritize Technical

DebtLuke Hohmann

Founder and CEO The Innovation Games® Company

Twitter: #innovgames

A bit about Luke

Work Hard

Play Hard (even at work )

Agenda

• What’s technical debt?• How do I identify it?• How do I prioritize it?• How do I get it done?

Technical Debt

Cruft in your { code | architecture | data

| data model | build process | other |that

{ slows down future progress |

just annoys you }

Thx Ward Cunningham & Sterling/Barton and lots of others in the technical community

Cruft… Happens

We get a better idea and want to refactor our code

We cut corners whenwe’re sprinting to

the finish

Previously OKcode needs to change

(security patch, upgrading libraries)

Cruft StinksCustomer

Responsiveness

©2008 Information Architects, Inc.

However…The savvy developer treats technical debt just as the

entrepreneur does financial debt. They use it wisely. It

speeds delivery, so long as it is properly managed.

CollaboratizeSM To Get Rid of Cruft

Play Speed Boat to identify the crufty anchors

that are slowing down your team.

Shape anchors into potential

projects.

Play Buy a Feature to prioritize projects.

Identify Shape Prioritize

What Are Innovation Games®

Innovation Games® are serious games that solve a wide range of product strategy and management problems across the market lifecycle.

They are played: •with customers & internal stakeholders•online or in-person•within or across organizational units•in single or multi-game formats

What Makes Innovation Games® Unique?

• Relaxed, “collaboratively competitive” structure– encourages teamwork – increases sharing of information– and is competitively fun

• Games utilize verbal, non-verbal, written, visual and spatial forms of communication which create rich, nuanced information.

• Strong foundations cognitive psychology & organizational behavior research.

We can collaborate & innovate(better) through serious games

Not Humor Like Joke

Not Silly Like Water Park

More LikeSettlers of Catan &

EuchreMeet Business

And yes, it is FUNV1-388 Luke Did you enjoy this experience?V1-388 Toni Yes - fun!V1-388 Greg Sure.V1-388 Greg I enjoyed it.V1-388 Vladimir thanks for the chance. B)V1-393 Luke Did you enjoy the experience? Would you be willing to play again in the

future?

V1-393 Tom yes, and yesV1-393 Mike Yes -- it was funV1-393 Sarah DefinitelyV1-393 Dominic Yes, and I think VersionOne are getting great info here

V1-393 Patrick I would be happy to play again.V1-394 Luke Team, are you now satisfied with your bids?V1-394 Mike YES!V1-394 Rene yupV1-394 Andre Indeed.V1-394 Jim I want more money!V1-394 Andre It was hard. But lots of fun. And yes, I want more money too - do you

take credit cards?

V1-394 Mike hahahaV1-394 Mike ok, gotta go guys.... it was fun

Not Work(Leisure)

Pleasure

Work

Play

Not-Play

External GoalsInternal Goals

Not-P

leasure

Adapted from http://it.coe.uga.edu/~lrieber/resources/blanchardmodel.gif

Identify Cruft with Speed Boat

Identify the crufty anchorsthat are holding your team

back from success

• Draw a picture of a boat

• The boat represents your system

• Developers create anchors that are holding them back

Players place anchors anywhere they want. These anchors appear in

real-time in the game board.

You can use whatever picture you want(your system could be a sailboat).

Integrated chat facility for players.

Helpful Tips…

Boats are good forgeneric processes

High-level architectures canhelp development teams focus on specific

areas or issues within the system

www.enigma.com

Shaping• Speed Boat game results

are shaped into potential projects.

• Each project is defined in terms of benefits, impacts and costs.

• Involve your team!

Prioritize Projects with Buy a Feature

• 12-20 projects described in terms of benefits and costs

• 5 to 8 players given limited budget

• Purchased items represent the priorities of the team

• Chat logs shape resultsPrioritize the improvement backlog

Buy A Feature Online - Preparing

A list of features with prices. This example is for product concepts for a pair of internet

sunglasses

“Shirt Sizes” help you quickly price your

features – or you can enter a price directly!

Playing the GamePlayers are listed along the

top with their budget

Player bids.

Highly desired items are purchased.

The chat facility helps players negotiate about the items they desire.

Buy A Feature Online - Results

Results of many games played,

sorted by number of times

purchased.

Many Ways to Play: Parties, Galas, and Tournaments

What is it? Who plays? Facilitated? Number of Items?

Number of players?

Party A “dinner party”.

You select and control participants

Yes 12..20 5..8

Gala An “open seating event”

Random participants based on a shared URL

No 12..20 9+In groups of 5..8

Tournament A combination of parties!

You control and select participants

Yes 20+ Based on num of items & num of tournaments

Tournament Structure

15

15

7

745

15

14 7

7

14 7

1

2

3

4

5

List of projects

14 Each dark square represents one game

7 Each light square represents the “winning” projects

Play many tournaments to control for “bracket

strength”.

Getting it Done

• Big stuff gets added to your roadmap

• Smaller items gets added to your backlog – Allocate a certain number of

points each sprint to fixing them

OR– Schedule an entropy reduction

sprint to get rid of lots of cruft

Learn more about roadmaps and entropy reduction here:

Getting Started

Sign up for a free account: www.innovationgames.com

Play games.

Enjoy the results.

Thank You

Innovation Through Understanding®

Luke Hohmann

Founder & CEO

The Innovation Games® Company

cell: (408) 529-0319

lhohmann@innovationgames.com