A Problem Draws Near! Let’s Learn Agile with Gaming

We had the pleasure of Michael “Miggs” Migliacio hosting our gathering this month.  Miggs had an opportunity to present (virtually) at Scrum Fest Osaka last year and he shared parts of the presentation as well as a glance at a fun and unique game to battle monsters using our choice of 12 weapons (Agile principles).

After a brief introduction, Miggs helped us connect the dots between Role Playing Games (RPGs) and our Scrum teams.  As Miggs says, “Just like when monstsers randomly appear in RPG games, problems in software development can show up anytime!”  Are we prepared?

In a typical battle party, you may find yourself playing the role of the healer, DPS, or the tank.  As our guild travels through the mysterious cavern of wonders, we might make a wrong turn and find ourselves trapped in a room full of monsters!  We have to choose, do we spread out and battle each monster as solo missions?  No way!  We won’t survive!  The Tank comes helps us determine who we should target first and one by one, we’ll defeat each monster.  As a DPS player, we secure our armor, grab our weapons, and charge the monsters.  The more monsters we defeat, the more tired and weaker we become, but fortunately, we have our Healer to help motivate us to keep going.  Soon, we have secured the cavern of wonders and we are ready to celebrate!  We did it!  What a fabulous mission!

Sound familiar?  We have all of these roles on our Scrum teams.  The Tank, aka PO, helps us choose the monster to battle (or backlog items to complete).  He helps guide us towards goals as as a leader.  DPS, aka Development Team, work together to defeat the monster (or complete the work).  They help devise the battle plan (the “how” of the work).  The Healer, aka Scrum Master, helps motivate the team to keep going, helps remove blockers, and helps power up the team in Agile & Scrum knowledge to enable more efficient work.

Once we connected the dots between RPGs and our Scrum teams, Miggs gave us a glance into a fun and unique game where players could battle Agimon.  What are Agimon?  Agimon are pesty little critters that love antipatterns.  Each Agimon has their own unique strength (the anti-pattern they love most) but they also have their weaknesses (specific principles).  Which of the 12 principles would you toss toward the Agimon to defeat him?  If you look out of the corner of your eye, do you see Agimon trying to sneak their way into your team room?  Have no fear!  You have your arsenal of principles ready!

Miggs wrapped up by sharing a few tips and tricks when presenting to groups.  For example, in passive presentations, participants only maintain concentration for approximately 7-10 minutes.  How can you keep them engaged?  Try breakout activities, polls, Q&A, etc.

We had wonderful times with Miggs.  If you missed the event, you can watch the recording here.  What other similarities do you see between the games you play and your teams?  Are you ready to battle some Agimon?  :)Stay tuned for details on next month’s event!

You can find out more about Miggs here:

Agimon assets & resources by Dr. Ashley Godbold:

Recording of the session:

One thought on “A Problem Draws Near! Let’s Learn Agile with Gaming”

Leave a Reply