Game: Word Game

Goal

The goal is to understand how WIP affects productivity

Time

10 to 15 minutes

Material

Couple of A4 paper sheets

Sticky notes

Pen/pencil for each participant

Roles

·         One developer: The developer will write down the words as given by each customer

·         4 to 6 customers: Each customer will give a word to the developer to write

·         One time keeper: The time keeper will record the various time records during the game

Pre-work

Game organizer creates 12 to 14 stickies each having a word written over it. Organizer should choose the word which have 5 to 10 letters and should not be commonly used in day to day life (e.g. desil, natiation, agastopia, benthos, erinaceous, gullus, cabotage, cacoethes, oxter, quire, xert, afreet, comes, ogdoad, etc.). While choosing words for part 1 and part 2 of the game, organizer should ensure that words in both parts are comparable in number of letters.

Let’s Play

Part 1

1. A team is consists of one developer and 4 to 6 customers
2. The developer is given a paper sheet and a pencil/pen
3. Each customer is given a sticky with a word written on it (say 4 customers with “deasil”, “natation”, “agastopia”, and “benthos” word)
4. To keep customer happy and to minimize the wait time of each customer, the developer starts writing each word from customer simultaneously 
5. The first customer tells first letter of his word to the developer. The developer writes down it on the paper sheet. 

 6. Now second customer tells first letter of his word to the developer. The developer writes down it on the paper sheet.

 

7. Step 6 is repeated for remaining customers 

8. Now first customer tells second letter of his word and the developer write down the same on his paper sheet

9. Step 8 is repeated for each customer

 

10.  Repeat step 8 for each customer for all other letters in their words

Note: Time keeper is jotting down following details while game is being played

	Customer1	Customer2	Customer3	Customer4
Time when first letter is written by developer on the sheet
Time when last letter is written by developer on the sheet

 

Part 2

 1. Each customer is given a new sticky note with brand new word (e.g. “oxter”, “erinaceous”, “cabotage”, and “gallus”).
2. To minimize the WIP, the developer is allowed to work on a single task at a time.
3. The developer writes down the word on the sheet as told by first developer.

 

4. Repeat step 3 for all customer

 

Note: Time keeper is jotting down following details while game is being played

	Customer1	Customer2	Customer3	Customer4
Time when first letter is written by developer on the sheet
Time when last letter is written by developer on the sheet

Discussion

Discuss the difference between both approaches

• Duration of first delivery
• Duration of overall delivery
• Confusion and chaos while work is going on