Business gamification company Innovation Games has released its ScrumKnowsy browser-based "serious game" designed to be used by developers to improve their Scrum practice.
Players can challenge "oracles" like Scrum creator Jeff Sutherland, or Scrum trainers inside the game, to discover how their Scrum practice compares, or play multiplayer games to track alignment on Scrum practices, roles, and responsibilities.
"The key to successful, high-performing teams rests in alignment. Not just alignment of goals, but alignment of roles, responsibilities, methods of work, and communication," said Innovation Games CEO Luke Hohmann. "While there's been a lot of discussion about of the importance of alignment and team integrity, a way to effectively test (and improve) team alignment hasn't emerged."
"ScrumKnowsy gives teams a fun and effective way to explore how well they are aligned in their mission," Hohmann continued. "By formally testing, sharing, and discussing the results of games, teams will explicitly reduce the degree of ambiguity and equivocality of the shared outcomes they seek to create."
Key features of ScrumKnowsy are individual or multiplayer games: ScrumKnowsy lets you play on your own or with teams, tackling such topics as retrospectives, sprint planning, backlogs, and impediment lists. The ScrumKnowsy system allows individuals and teams to track their game results over time, providing real-time information on improvement and performance.
"ScrumKnowsy is designed for ongoing self-assessment," said ScrumTide partner Jim "Cope" Coplien, "because that's what Agile is about. The goal is to have fun and create value, and ScrumKnowsy helps Agile teams meet that goal."
Forrester Analyst Tom Grant recently profiled ScrumKnowsy and its role in facilitating Agility at Scale, writing, "Clearly, the approach that ScrumKnowsy takes is a lot less obnoxious than the Agile standards star chamber and a lot easier to use for regular reinforcement than training classes."
