Agile Delivery

The Agile Paper Airplane Game

Reading Time:
2 mins read
Ben Willmott
Founder

A 25 minute fun agile simulation game

This is a great game to play with teams who are new to Agile and frameworks like Scrum.  It teaches the attendees the benefits of working in sprints, planning, retrospectives and teamwork.

The game is described below by splitting out what you need on each slide to help explain and run the game with your workshop attendees.

You can download all the slides to use yourself below.

Instructions for the game

Teams of 5-6 members

  1. Use only one sheet of paper for each airplane
  2. They’ll be three sprints (5 minutes each)
  3. Team with most correct airplanes wins
  4. A team member can perform only one fold at a time, they then need to pass it to another team member

Definition of done

The Paper airplane is….

  1. Built and tested
  2. Able to fly
  3. Accepted by the Product Owner

The Sprint

Sprint planning (1 minute): estimation

Sprint work (2 minutes): fold lots of paper airplanes

Sprint review (1 minute) prove business value

Sprint retrospective (1 minute): improvement

Sprint 1 goal

Build as many paper airplanes as you can!

Acceptance criteria:

  1. The paper airplane must fly 3 metres
  2. The paper airplane should have a logo on both sides
  3. The should have the team name on it

Ready to go?

  1. Sprint planning (1 minute): estimation.
  2. Sprint work (2 minutes): fold lots of airplanes
  3. Sprint review (1 minute) prove business value
  4. Sprint retrospective (1 minute): improvement

Sprint 2

Same events, but difference Acceptance criteria

  1. Sprint planning (1 minute): estimation
  2. Sprint work (2 minutes): fold lots of paper airplanes
  3. Sprint review (1 minute) prove business value
  4. Sprint retrospective (1 minute): improvement
Be prepared to fill up your recycling bin!
Be prepared for a lot of recycling! 

Sprint 2 goal

Build as many paper airplanes as you can!

Acceptance criteria:

  1. The plane must fly 4 metres
  2. The plane should have a logo on both sides
  3. The plane should have the team name on it
  4. A pattern should be on the top of the wings

Sprint 3

Same events, same Acceptance criteria, but a different DOD

  1. Sprint planning (1 minute): estimation
  2. Sprint work (2 minutes): fold lots of paper airplanes
  3. Sprint review (1 minute) prove business value
  4. Sprint retrospective (1 minute): improvement

Definition of done V2

The Paper airplane is….

  1. Built and tested
  2. Able to fly
  3. Accepted by the product owner
  4. Compliant with safety regulations: no pointed points

Sprint 3 goal

Build as many paper airplanes as you can!

Acceptance criteria:

  1. The plane must fly 4 metres
  2. The plane should have a logo on both sides
  3. The plane should have the team name on it
  4. .Pattern should be on the top of the wings

And the winner is!

Debriefing

 What have you learnt?

Instructor guide

Download or create the templates (60/team)

  1. For teams of 5-6 members
  2. Handout different coloured pens to each team
  3. The team who can deliver the most value (paper airplanes) wins. In the case of equal scores, the team that has the most predictability rate wins
  4. Keep track of the score on a flip board/whiteboard

An Example Score Board

Screenshot 2019-05-26 at 16.59.06.png

Ben Willmott
Founder
Ben is Delivery Director at the London based creative agency Wunderman Thompson where he creates bespoke ways or working for his clients and teams. Ben is also the founder of The PPM Academy specializing in coaching Project Management, Agile Delivery and how to be more productive at home and work.

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