ProductBox Challenge

A hands-on game where you'll learn Product Ways of Working by building a cubed box with an integrated lid from a single sheet of A4 paper. Experience the thrill of teamwork, creativity, and competition, all while mastering the fundamentals of Agile. Learning Outcomes - A crash course in gaining understanding of Scrum roles, artefacts and mechanics - Teamwork and communication - Problem-solving under time constraints - how to have fun doing something somewhat mundane! Target Audience The ProductBox Challenge is suitable for all experience levels with Agile: 1. Beginners: An introduction to Agile and Scrum basics. 2. Intermediate: A practice field to reinforce Agile principles. 3. Advanced: A refresher and a platform for experimentation. 4. Coaches/Trainers: A hands-on tool for teaching Agile. It's a versatile game that can adapt to meet the needs of any team, regardless of their familiarity with Agile and/or Scrum.

Overview of the game

Objective

A hands-on game where you'll learn Product Ways of Working by building a cubed box with an integrated lid from a single sheet of A4 paper. Experience the thrill of teamwork, creativity, and competition, all while mastering the fundamentals of Agile.

Learning Outcomes

Target Audience

The ProductBox Challenge is suitable for all experience levels with Agile:
  1. Beginners: An introduction to Agile and Scrum basics.
  2. Intermediate: A practice field to reinforce Agile principles.
  3. Advanced: A refresher and a platform for experimentation.
  4. Coaches/Trainers: A hands-on tool for teaching Agile.
It's a versatile game that can adapt to meet the needs of any team, regardless of their familiarity with Agile and/or Scrum.

Product Goal

build a cubed box from A4 paper within 45 minutes.

Materials Provided

  1. A4 paper sheets plain and coloured
  2. Scissors one per team
  3. Glue or tapes one per team
  4. Markers 
  5. Rulers one per team
  6. Timer for the Scrum Master/team
  7. Flip charts one per team
  8. Sticky notes
  9. Easel flip chart one per team
  10. Printed instructions on how to build a box Plus QR code to 5 min video on building a cubed box 
  11. Printed event with timebox durations for the Scrum Master
  12. Scrum board pre-drawn on team flip chat

Participants

Teams of 6-8 people, a max of 6 teams.
Product Owners: From our team members: Alex, James, Pouya, Vindy.
Alain and Kubair will be facilitating and with that unable to play the PO role, two of us will have to play PO for two teams -  good anti pattern to demonstrate maybe!

Timeboxes

2 x Timeboxes
Timebox planning: 5 mins
Making Timebox: 10 mins
Timebox Review & Retrospective: 5 mins

Run of play overview
Introduction - 5 minutes
Timebox 1 Planning - 5 minutes
Making Timebox 1 - 10 minutes
Timebox 1 Review and Retrospective - 5 minutes
Making Timebox 2 - 10 minutes
Final Timebox Review - 5 minutes
Closing and Winner Announcement - 5 minutes

Time Limit: 45 minutes

Resource Bank 

Like we have in our class - pic + QR code for:
5 min video on building a cubed box 
Video/s from Bootcamps
Scrum Guides created for WCC in their MS Teams
Agile Team Springboard Miro Canvas
Digital library of Agile resource

Game run of play

Introduction

(5 minutes)
Briefly explain the objective of the game and the rules.
Divide participants into teams of 6-8 people.
We nominate a Scrum Master for each team.
Scrum Master keeps time and helps remove any obstacles. Gets a print out of the timboxes.
Product Owner is one of us for each team, may be? 
Team Members work on building the ProductBox according to the plan - detailed instructions provided in a technical approach description. May be one of us is a TA and they pull on it ?
Teams assign visible roles within their team: Scrum Master, Product Owner (us), and Developers.

Timebox 1 Planning

(5 minutes)
Each team receives the same set of user stories with acceptance criteria to build a ProductBox.
Teams have 5 minutes to plan their first sprint, deciding what they can accomplish and how. They pull stories into Timebox backlog -  may be we provide Scrum boards pre-made on their flip charts and attach stories to the product backlog too…
They need to build a scrum board on easel flip charts provided 

Making Timebox 1

(10 minutes)
Teams have 10 minutes to execute their first sprint.
Scrum Master keeps time and helps remove any obstacles.
Team Members work on building the ProductBox according to the provided technical plan.
Product Owner provides feedback and can reprioritise tasks if needed.

Timebox 1 Review and Retrospective

(5 minutes)
Teams present their progress. All of us perhaps in one spot and each team brings their increment/deliverable to the table - quick reviews - 30-45 secs/team.
Teams go back and discuss what went well and what could be improved.
Product Owner (one of us lot) provides feedback.

Making Timebox 2

(10 minutes)
Teams have another 10 minutes to improve upon or complete their box based on the feedback and retrospective.
Scrum Master and Product Owner continue in their roles as before.

Final Timebox Review

(5 minutes)
Teams present their final product.
Discuss what went well and what could be improved for future sprints.
No Retrospective

Closing and Winner Announcement

(5 minutes)
A panel of judges or all participants vote on which team's box best meets the requirements.
Announce the winning team and hand out small prizes if available or donate to charity of the team’s choice.
Rules
No team can start building before the sprint planning is complete.
Teams can only use the materials provided.
The box must meet all the requirements set forth at the beginning of the game.We might even provide an exemplar box!
Winning criteria 
Number of ProductBoxes completed that meet the Acceptance Criteria and DoD
Aesthetics of box or boxes made

Definition of Done for the ProductBox
A "Definition of Done" serves as a shared understanding among the team and stakeholders about what it means for a ProductBox to be complete. 

Marking and Feedback

Structural Integrity:
The box must be stable and able to stand on its own without collapsing. 
Integrated Lid:
The box must have an integrated lid that opens and closes smoothly.
Size Consistency:
The dimensions of the box must adhere to the specifications provided in the user stories.
Design and Decoration:
The box must be decorated according to the design requirements specified in the user stories.
Quality Assurance:
The Product Owner must inspect the box to ensure it meets all the acceptance criteria outlined in the user stories.
Timebox Compliance:
The box must be completed within the allocated sprint time.
Team Agreement:
All team members must agree that the box meets these criteria.
Presentation Ready:
The box is ready to be presented in the final review.
Feedback Incorporated:
Any feedback from the previous sprint review must be incorporated.
Should a team meet all these criteria, then they can confidently say that the ProductBox is "Done". This ensures a high-quality output and aligns the team on what needs to be achieved for successful completion.

Alternate modes of play


  1. Provide 2 "glues", one of which is just corn-starch in water.
    Allow extra time for a spike to determine the best course of action if asked for.
  2. Give them more paper than they need and other resources than they need.
    Knowing what the winning criteria are, see if they are tempted to take on too much. Don't award points for extra boxes.
  3. Insist the lid of the box be manufactured by a different team member to the rest. They must come together flush.
    See if they can 'merge' their work, agree on a good width, etc.
  4. Write a deliberately ambiguous user story "as a box lover, I want a star shape drawn on the lid so that it makes me smile when I use it". Obviously, I mean a 6 sided Star of David?
    See if they have the initiative to questions the user stories with the PO
  5. Deduct one point for everyone who doesn't speak in the meetings
  6. Throw in an obviously badly written story, "the box should be rounded" and nothing else.
    Make sure they challenge the PO and not take it into their sprint.