Another Agile Game to make paper airplanes!
Every one of us has made paper airplanes.
We have made them for ourselves.
We have made them for kids.
We continue making them for the kid in ourselves.
What if the goal was to make the airplane that flew the farthest?
We decided to do two Sprints to see how innovative the teams get in creating and flying airplanes.
The airplanes were being made in a garden and to be flown in the field.
A few observations from the first Sprint:
- Most teams practiced in the garden and not in the field.
- If the plane was to fly in the field then the practice should be happening in the field. Same thing applies for the teams delivering software. It is not enough if the software runs locally. It needs to run in the production environment
- Most teams had a classically folded airplane
- This is completely fine. Sometimes it is not the WHAT but the HOW you fly the plane. More later 😉
A few observations from the Retrospective:
- Most teams identified wind as the culprit
- However, wind was a constant for all teams. All teams had to battle with wind. The trick was to be able be patient and catch the wind when it blew in the right direction.
- One team asked to be able to research the internet for new airplane designs
- I found that an interesting request. We decided to keep it simple and not have any team research on the internet. However in real life, researching to find better designs and learn from history would definitely have improved the chances of designing a better airplane
A few observations from the second Sprint:
- Most teams did not invest time on how to throw the airplane
- Building an airplane is one thing. Knowing how to fly it is another. Understanding the angle of release, arm movement and follow through would tremendously increase the chances of the airplane flying further
- One team did get help from a member outside the team
- Sometimes a outside perspective helps in coming up with a new design or a new throw of the airplane. This applies to projects too. Just explaining the issue to another team member in a coffee break and getting some ideas can help your idea fly further
Are you stuck with the WHAT in your Sprints or are you flying with the HOW?
Reference: Agile Games to Boost Team Building and Creativity | MiroBlog
