Lego4Scrum

Lego4Scrum is a serious game that allows participants to experience the principles of Scrum in a fun and tangible way. Participants build a Lego city while organising themselves into Scrum teams, thereby experimenting with the roles, artifacts, and ceremonies of this agile methodology. This game stimulates creativity and engagement while fostering a practical understanding of key Scrum concepts.

Walkthrough

1. 1

   Introduction and Objectives

   10 min

   The facilitator presents the purpose of the workshop: to understand Scrum through collaborative building with Lego. They briefly explain the concepts of Scrum, the roles (Scrum Master, Product Owner, Development Team), and the ceremonies (Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Retrospective). Participants are divided into teams of 5 to 7 people.

   Tip — Use visuals to explain Scrum concepts to capture participants' attention from the start.

2. 2

   Backlog Presentation

   10 min

   The facilitator distributes a backlog of features in the form of cards to the teams. Each card represents a feature of the city to be built (e.g., school, park, road). Teams discuss and prioritise the backlog items based on their value and complexity.

   Tip — Encourage teams to discuss the value of features to promote understanding of the prioritisation concept.

3. 3

   Sprint Planning

   15 min

   Teams plan their first sprint by selecting the features they believe they can complete. They discuss the necessary tasks and estimate the time required. The facilitator ensures that each team has a clear sprint goal.

   Tip — Make sure teams do not overload their sprint backlog by helping them to reasonably estimate their capacities.

4. 4

   Construction and Daily Scrum

   30 min

   Teams begin building the selected features with Lego. Every 10 minutes, the facilitator conducts a 5-minute Daily Scrum where each team shares their progress, obstacles, and next steps. This promotes communication and self-organisation.

   Tip — Use a timer to structure the Daily Scrums and maintain the pace of the workshop.

5. 5

   Sprint Review and Retrospective

   20 min

   At the end of the sprint, each team presents their work during a Sprint Review. Participants discuss what has been accomplished and gather feedback. Then, a retrospective is conducted to identify what went well and what could be improved for the next sprint.

   Tip — Encourage constructive and kind feedback to foster a learning environment.

6. 6

   Conclusion and Learnings

   10 min

   The facilitator concludes by highlighting the key learnings from the workshop. They connect the experiences to Scrum principles and discuss their application in real professional contexts.

   Tip — Link the game experiences to real challenges faced by teams to reinforce the relevance of the learnings.

Variants

• Introduce unexpected events during construction to simulate changes in priorities.
• Add time constraints for each feature to simulate tight deadlines.
• Ask each team to build a different part of a common city to encourage inter-team collaboration.