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Position Papers P4A

Page history last edited by Juliane Conradt 13 years, 1 month ago

We are Full!

We reached the number of 50 participants today.

To join the waiting list, please enter your Position Paper below the headline "Waiting List" at the bottom of the page.

 

HINTS:

if you don't see an EDIT button above the headline, mail to orgteam AT play4agile DOT org - we'll give you writer's access.

Don't forget after posting your position paper to register at http://play4agile.eventbrite.com/

There is no automatic invitation any more! And you do not need special information to register, it's open for everyone (but there are only few places left).

 

Position Papers are necessary to get a ticket! 

There are 50 places available (18 places are reserved for organizers and sponsors; one of the other 32 places is for you). 

The costs are 300 Euro if you sleep in a single room and 240 Euro if you share your room with a second person.

 

The questions for you position paper are:

  • What's your experience in using Games for coaching teams toward being Agile?
  • What do you plan to learn / explore / play at this conference?
  • How do you plan to contribute?

When you read about who's coming and what they are passionate about, prepare to be surprised! 

 

The regristration process will happen as follows: 

  1. Please enter your position paper here.
  2. Everybody who entered his position paper until Thursday 11th of November 11:11am (GMT +1) will get an invitation for a ticket.
    We will send the invitation to the email adress you used for your PBworks account. Please make sure that email adress directs to you.
    First come first serve. The organizers decide if all position papers are qualified for a ticket.
  3. Register at EventBrite with the information you get in the invitation
  4. After registration you will receive a confirmation from the hotel with an invoice of your room fee. 
  5. Please pay the bill within 2 weeks otherwise your registration will be cancled. 

Organisers (click to see these position papers)

Martin Heider

Olaf Lewitz

Marc Bless

Christine Neidhardt

Heiko Stapf

Jens Korte

Jens Hoffmann

Katrin Elster

Thorsten O. Kalnin

Deborah Hartmann Preuss

Ilja Preuß


 

Mike Sutton

mike suttonI use to be an agile coach, but now I am a Linchpin (really? what is a Linchpin). I use many tools to help organisations get better outcomes from their investments. These outcomes range from higher quality, more valuable software features faster to happier teams and having valuable and important conversations, from discovering new products to build to playing games with your organisation to help them remember how to have fun. Oh, and many things in between.

 

18 years in the software industry (ranging from defence to healthcare, logistics to tech startups and even the odd adult entertainment site!), there is probably not much I haven't built/broken/bastardised. I am fortunate to have amassed many tools to help me help my clients.

 

What the tools I use? love, trust, courage, humanity, humour, Agile, lean and systems thinking, comedy, improvisational theatre, OpenSpace and NLP... this list grows everyday.

 

I am a consumate fun mongerer and game player - but not the kind that simply follows mechanics of a game. Play is extremely important to me (sometimes to the exclusion of purpose - sometimes the purpose of something is not to have a purpose :).

 

I come to Play4Agile with an open mind and most importantly, an open heart to share, learn and delight in being children again.  I know many games for many things and I bring this to freely share and improve, I want to learn many more. But rather like teaching a man to fish vs giving him fish, I want to improve on my ability to create new games that educate and delight. It is my sincere wish that I may help cause as much chaos as possible and perhaps something miraculous might just emerge.

 

Share my daily life on twitter @mhsutton (also a great place to just say 'hi')

Read my thoughts on life, software and everything in between at http://wizewerx.com/blogs

 

Thank you for reading and let's play!


 

Juliane Conradt

 

The Agile Coach Camp 2010 at the same (very nice!) location changed my life, so my expectations are fairly high this time. I've quit my job, I will relocate and I started a coaching education – This might happen also to you, so be prepared! :-) 

I have two main topics of interest (now, this might change until February): I would like to find out more about games I can use in different coaching situations, not only for agile teams. And I am interested in games that can convince people who think that playing games in a professional environment is strange/frightening/ridiculous that there is a lot of sense in playing games. Also some discussion and shared experience on how to „dose“ games would be fascinating for me.

 

I used to work for an IT organisation in the beginning of its agile transition and i can imagine very well to start with a new job in this area again. I saw and experienced myself the fascinating impact that games can have but also made the experience that you need to choose very well which game to use with which people in which context with which goal.

I would like to contribute through adding my sense of humor and for people to the discussions. I am curious to invent new games with you. If someone is interested I can share information about the coaching education I currently do and the way games and other methods are used there. 

 

 

Rosemary nuts

 

2 Tablespoons rosemaryneedles

2 Coffeespoons salt

2 Coffeespoons brown sugar

½ Coffeespoon cayennepepper

½ Eggwhite

600 g nuts (see hint below)

 

Chop the rosemary needles into fine parts and put them into a bowl. Mix them well with salt, brown sugar, cayennepepper and the eggwhite. Then add the nuts and stir well – all nuts must be covered by the herbs-egg mixture. Place a sheet of baking paper on a baking sheet and disperse the nuts on it. They should all be seperated. Heat your oven (200°C, Convection 180° C) and roast the nuts 10-15 minutes. During this time turn the nuts several times. At the end of the time do not leave the nuts unattended – they can burn very easily. Get them out when they have a golden colour and let them cool completely before you store them in well closing glasses (e.g. jam glasses). You might also use Tupper, but I have no experience how long they keep fresh in tupper. In the glasses you can store them for quite a while.

 

Hint: We prefere a mixture from Cashews and blanched almonds. You may use all kind of nuts you like. For walnuts you might need some more eggwhite due to the big surface of walnuts. It turned out to be easier to roast each kind of nut on its own although you also can use mixtures. The reason is that the smallest nuts tend to burn while the biggest ones are not finished yet.

 

Another hint: no blanched almonds available? Do it yourself: take normal almonds, souse them with boiling water and wait some 10 minutes. Be careful, this is still hot now ;-) You can now easily flip the almonds out of their skin.

 


 

 

 

 

Michael Sahota

I am an Agile/Lean coach, consultant and trainer working in Toronto, Canada.

 

What's your experience using Games in coaching teams toward being Agile / Lean?

 

Although I have been using Agile for a while, my first games were at Agile 2008 with Mike McCollough and Don McGreal of TastyCupcakes Agile games site fame. Since then, I have been using games extensively when working with clients and training.
Last year I co-authored my first game: The Backlog is in the Eye of the Beholder. In 2009 and again in 2010, I co-ran an Agile Games Workshop in Toronto. I am InnovationsGames® trained facilitator.
Feel free to check out my blog posts on Agile Games.
Here are some of the games I am currently playing:
What do you plan to learn / explore / play at this conference?

 

I want to learn how other people run games and learn some new games. Maybe I will work with others to create a new game. Who knows?

 

How do you plan to contribute? 

I will share some of the games that I use that others have not seen. I also usually bring a lot of energy and excitement with me, so that will be fun.

 

Please feel free to get in touch by email at michael.sahota at agilitrix.com or Twitter at @michaelsahota or stop by my blog.

 


Sven Tiffe

My work focuses on building, leading and guiding groups of software developers towards becoming passionate, quality-oriented and open-minded software engineering teams. Another part of my work experience is about requirements engineering as a product owner. I am pretty new to the discipline of using games for supporting the team building process and experienced games mainly as participant. In addition, I had the opportunity to pick up and apply some games I've learned to my team and to peers.

I experienced that in many cases playing a game is not a game and transforming experiences gained during a game into a lesson learned can be challenging. Introducing games into large organizations that lack of general trust can be tough as a patronizing reacting of the broader audience can be an additional challenge.

Therefore, besides to meeting passionate peers, my plans for #p4a11 are twofold: I would like to learn, explore and practice games. Games for small teams, for large groups, games with tools and games for distributed teams. In addition, I am highly interested in learning about other's experiences how to deal with the cold wind of "why do you have time for this kindergarden stuff while you are supposed to code?"-kind of reactions when introducing games to teams and organizations.

As I've learned most games I know from people who are already on this list ("bipity-bipity-bob"), my main contribution will be my availability as participant, feedback giver and discussion  partner.

 

I share my thoughts on agile software engineering and Java programming on my blog and sometimes on Twitter @IlIlIIlIlIlIlII .


Christoph Mathis (Krishan)

 

When to play and When not to play

 

I use games in many of my coaching engagements and in all my trainings.

I made the experience that some games work in certain environments and fail miserably in others, with other participants.

 

I want to extend my experience about

- how to use games and what are the goals to achieve, the conditions and selection criteria

- extend my knowledge and portfolio on games and exercises

- exchange my points of view with other coaches

 

Krishan

Blog


Nancy Van Schooenderwoert

 

I’m Nancy Van Schooenderwoert, an Agile coach with much experience in agile for embedded and safety-critical systems. I’ve been designing games as a hobby for almost 20 years. I also have worked in flight simulation, which is really just a serious learning game. And I have been coaching Agile teams since the very beginning of the Agile community. Games are the absolute gold standard for learning when there is no margin for mistakes, such as training astronauts and airline pilots. It’s often seen as too expensive in ordinary business, but we know differently;-)

 

I designed a board game based on Penrose tilings, called “Kites and Darts”. In 2005 my game was published and it won an award.

You can see it here: http://www.gamepuzzles.com/pentuniv.htm . I’ve also got a new board game design in the works, which we could play-test if there is interest.

I have a leadership-shift simulation game I’ve used with Agile teams. I’d like to work with you to design a version of it to optimize the flow of a workstream.  I can contribute the lessons learned in developing Kites & Darts – techniques to create game rules that support the strategies you want your players to figure out. This is key to designing games that teach what you intend to teach.

The biggest thing I learned in the several years I spent developing Kites & Darts was the importance of play-testing. I designed the game rules, but my play-testers taught me strategies I never would have thought of. First-time players beat me sometimes due to this! There is a powerful lesson for businesses in that.  I’d like to help with play-testing: doing it and exploring its layers, e.g. rule conflicts, omissions, strategy problems, chance vs. skill, evenness of play.

At least one Potential Topic:

  • Play-testing, and how to turn problems into plusses
  • Game design – creating spontaneity yet building in boundedness, while finding the fun

My website is www.leanagilepartners.com, and you can email me at nancyv at leanagilepartners dot com

 


Sven Röpstorff

 

I have about 15 years of experience in project management, mostly IT projects due to my history as software developer. Coming from the traditional way of doing projects I was infected with agile methodologies several years ago. After working as external Scrum Master for a few projects I suddenly found myself in a coaching role, teaching future internal Scrum Masters how to fill this role, so I started to offer services as an Agile Coach as well. I try to share my enthusiasm with people, teams and companies and in my experience the best way to persuade them is not just to talk about agile stuff but to make people see and feel it. That's why I love to play games in my workshops and trainings. I'm familiar with the standard games like "Design the box", "Ballpoint", "Boss-Worker" and so on, but I'm always on the lookout for new games and for variations other coaches use. 

At this conference I would like to share my ideas and experience as well as learning lots of new stuff from you guys. Please find my contact details below and get in touch if you like.

 

Skype: sven.roepstorff

Twitter: oedel

Xing 

LinkedIn 

Blog: www.projekt-log.de

 


Sebastian Eichner

 

I am working as freelance software developer and as coach for the introduction of agile processes. To make the theory easier to experience, i would love to work more with games etc. On meetings like the Retrospective Facilitators Gathering or the AgileCoachCamp this year i have seen quite a few games, but so far did not actively use them. I do have some experience in organizing coding events (also a sort of game) like katas or dojos.

 

I want to get to know more helpful games, learn how to organize a game with a group and dive into these games myself to see what this teaches me. Especially i hope to learn games/simulations which allow people to try out a different role than they are used to. So on the side of contributing: my curiosity, energy and active participation.

Twitter: @stdout

Xing: Sebastian Eichner


Josef Scherer

   

What's your experience using Games in coaching teams toward being Agile / Lean?

I became interested in using games for coaching agile teams, when I learned about system thinking games like the Ball Point Game from Boris Gloger in 2007. I really love the Ball Point Game and tried several variants of it. Later in that year I joined a lean thinking group on Xing and we organized an open space in Dresden, where we tried out a lot of other games, like the Beer Game.

For me it's important, that games are linked to learning outcomes and that the learnings can be transfered to the learners daily practice. I wouldn't use games in training and coaching just for fun.

 

What do you plan to learn / explore / play at this conference?

Connect with other agile trainers and coaches and learn from their experience.

 

How do you plan to contribute?

I could present some games from the System Thinking Playbook.

 

skype: josef.scherer

Xing: https://www.xing.com/profile/Josef_Scherer

LinkedIn: http://de.linkedin.com/pub/josef-scherer/5/11b/5b0

Blog: http://agile-scrum.de/


 Ken Power

 

 

My experiences using games

I work as an agile coach with a large multi-national communications company. I have been working with agile methods (first XP, then Crystal, Scrum and others; more recently lean and Kanban) since 1998/1999, introducing agile to many teams and organizations.

 

I have used several games including the XP game, some Innovation Games, the Ball Point Game, as well as techniques like Silent Grouping. I have lead or taken part in games using toys, art supplies, and have tried some of the games at tastycupcakes.com/. I believe there is huge power in games for learning and conveying experiences, and for fostering collaboration and innovation in and between individuals, teams, organizations and their stakeholders.

 

Plan to learn/explore?

I want to learn new techniques for creating and using games. I would like to expand my personal toolbox to include more game playing strategies, and learn how to improve the way I use games.

 

I see a lot of potential in frameworks like Artful Making and improvisation, and would like to explore these.

 

Specific areas I would like to explore include:

 

  •  Games for distributed teams
  • Games that help all stakeholders in an organization, from senior leadership to agile teams, to quickly grasp the experiences, values and principals of agile, helping them to reach their own "A Ha!" moments.
  • Games for fully cross-functional teams, e.g., games that help developers, testers, documentation writers, user experience designers, product owners, etc. work through problems as a cross-functional team.
  • Games that help people experience their potential, and make the connection to see how they can apply that potential through agile development methods

 

I also have the seeds of an idea for games that involve musical instruments. There is great power in getting people to create music together. There is a place for everyone, even those with no musical training. Maybe we’ll get a chance to explore that a little.

 

How do you plan to contribute?

I plan to propose at least one session from the points I listed above, and fully participate in as many other sessions as possible. Also happy to help in any other way that’s needed.

 

I am on twitter as @ken_power, and my blog is at http://www.kenpower.ie/


Pierre E. NEIS

 

Who I am? Scrum Coach and PMO, using agile at Management and in non-IT domains. Working cross boarder with coaching teams from ICF.

What's your experience in using Games for coaching teams toward being Agile?
- I'm a big fan of agile games. I use it in learning by playing sessions.

What do you plan to learn / explore / play at this conference?
- I want to learn a lot of new tips and tricks from my fellows and share with them new learned soft skills like Process Com and team building stuffs.

How do you plan to contribute?
- I'm an impediment, I can't still without contributing ;b))

If, you keep my contribution, I'll add a bit more details on it.
 

Skype: pierre.neis

Blog   : http://managingagile.blogspot.com/

Twitter: elpedromajor

 

 


 

 

profile picture

Sebastian Schürmann

 

Teamlead of a small development team on a big mission. We are a full on scrum development driven team in need to adopt new ways of collaborating to create a better product. 

What's your experience in using Games for coaching teams toward being Agile?

I am pretty much a beginner in both: coaching (1 yr) and the agile games (6 month). I found out that the position opf team lead in an agile team is much more the one of a coach than the one of a classic "boss". From the classic planning poker to the more advanced stuff like for example different versions of the boat game, we have some things already in production mode. "Buy me a feature"'esk games and some of the activities related to product development get more and more into my personal focus now. 

What do you plan to learn / explore / play at this conference?
considering what I learned at SG munich 2009 I hope to get a lot of practice in some of the games I only read about to bring the stuff home to our team. Maybe there is one or another Person who can help me with the implementation of agile4play in the daily bussiness, selfmade, as we did our scrum transition. 

How do you plan to contribute?
Experiences with: The Scrum Lego Game (I can bring it and play it with others) , Planning POker and Variants, Boat game variants I tried.


 

Sebastian Lang

If you ask my wife, she would tell you, she is in charge of 4 kids, which is strange, because I just have three ... anyhow I guess this has something to do with the fact, that I like to play a lot :-) 

Unfortunately, there seems to be a magical age at which gambling is no longer socially acceptable, at least during office times ... 
As I am currently changing my focus from software development (acting 7 years as a developer, architect and team / technical lead) to agile coaching, I realize, that some people see 'working' as the opposite of
'playing' ... mhh ... I don't agree! Even before I get in contact with a couple of serious agile games, I realized in my voluntary work as a trainer for young people in a water rescue association, that there is no
better way to mediate knowledge, insights and skills, than playing (role) games with a serious intention.

I am curious to learn more about agile games and explore the ideas in behind, to use them in my daily work. As I am less a 'cookbook cooker', but more an adventurous and open-minded guy,
I hope to also create and play some new games with you and ... have some valuable fun :-)

By the way: I am not the cycling freak, google mentions when you search for me ;-)

 

 


Ellen Grove

 

My name is Ellen Grove. I'm currently a free-lance Agile coach (in Ottawa ON Canada), before that I was a software tester/development team leader for many years, and way before that I was an integration worker for adults and kids with developmental disabilities in a variety of circumstances. One common thread through all of those professional experiences is a realization that people work together more effectively and can find more creative ways to get done whatever it is they need to do if there is space in their environment for play. I agree with Stuart Brown that the opposite of play is not work but depression. As an Agile coach, I love using games to get ideas across in a way that gives people the opportunity to explore (and challenge) the key concepts, and creates a more memorable experience. Play helps build community, and that to me is the foundation of Agile work.


* What's your experience in using Games for coaching teams toward being Agile?
I use games regularly in training and I'd like to explore using games more regularly throughout a coaching engagement to get work done and to help address issues that a team runs into.
* What do you plan to learn / explore / play at this conference?
I would love to learn some new games (and share those I know, in the unlikely event that some of them are new to any of the participants, many of whom have inspired me), particularly shorter ones that can be pulled out in a pinch to address a current topic
I would love to help create a new game focused on retrospectives if possible
I would also like to get pointers on how to choose the right game for the right team to address the right issue

* How do you plan to contribute?
By participating fully, joyfully sharing my experiences and encouraging others to share what they know. I'm an instigator by nature -- I hope to instigate some fun!


Christian Dähn

I work as a consultant in many agile and not-so-agile projects as coach or project manager. I like to include games into different activities (like retrospectives or introduction-workshops) to move people out of their comfort zone and start them thinking different.
I would like to see and participate in more games that I couldn't try before and learn how I can adapt them for my coachings. Furthermore, I'd like to meet other coaches and exchange ideas about games for specific situations. I'm specially interested in learning about how to deal with situations where games are regarded as "not-so-business-like".
My contribution will be mostly as participant and discussion partner. However, I'm sure there will be many opportunities to contribute my ideas to the group.

My twitter name is @da_chrisch and I'm also @Xing (https://www.xing.com/profile/Christian_Daehn)

 

 


Christiane Philipps

 

I'm working as an Interim IT manager on CTO level and I've been introducing Agile (mostly Scrum, some XP and Kanban) to 4 teams so far. 

 

- What's your experience in using Games for coaching teams toward being Agile?
I love using games for introducing Agile principles to people who are new to Agile. Games give them a natural and

practical experience of concepts and principles which would be only theoretically, otherwise. Furthermore, I use games for team building.

And I would like to integrate it in my daily work.

 

- What do you plan to learn / explore / play at this conference?
I'd like to have an exchange with other people and hear about their experiences. And I'd like to learn more Agile games!

 

- How do you plan to contribute?
With my energy, my insights, my experience ;-) And if needed, of course with hands-on work :-)

 


Klaus Schenk

For the last more than six years I've been working as a freelance

organizational and personal development coach, consultant & trainer in

various industries.

(more via: https://www.xing.com/profile/Klaus_Schenck)

 

I came across agile via Solution Focus -> SCRUM -> this year's Agile Coach

Camp in April, and much enjoyed both people and way of un-organized

un-conference!

 

I have been part of a group of people with a common interest in "critical

chain project management" (CCPM) and "theory of constraints" (Eli Goldratt's

ideas), and co-developed a simple simulation game for CCPM. Ever since I've

been fascinated by the idea of using "simpler" games to explain more complex

"games" (or ways of interaction towards goals), and I've applied games like

"speedy balls" also in settings outside agile & co.

 

I'd love to expand my knowledge-range of games that help such kinds of

understanding, and that are simple, focused, fun to play, and implementable

with  everyday materials.

 

I'll bee happy to share my experience in neighboring fields, my enthusiasm

about coaching & supporting solutions & desired developments, my

understanding of simplexity / complicity, and my sense of humour.

I offer to introduce CCPM-games if anybody cares to hear about them. 


Andreas Leidig

Although I think I often are relaxed or even funny and not taking things very serious, I'm not a person who plays games often. I really have an ambivalent relation to games. I often love to participate - sometimes even enjoying it - I rarely initiate playing one. Maybe I even bring a game with me to try it out.

 

For my job as an agile coach, I would really like to enrich my repertoire of games to play with teams or individuals. And I really want to learn from you all.

 

I will contribute my complete person. Can be nice or not so nice. - Sometimes I'm a real "Spielverderber" (spoilsports). But hey! - You can learn a lot of such a person! :)

 


Jurgen Appelo

What's your experience using Games in coaching teams towards being Agile/Lean?

I have little experience using games. However, I once used the "Little Red Riding Hood" game that was devised by Alistair Cockburn, and adapted by me. A description of the game can be found on my blog: http://www.noop.nl/2009/02/checklist-for-an-agile-game.html

 

What do you plan to learn/explore/play at this conference?

I want to learn how to create good/effective/interesting games. I'm creating a course/workshop for Agile managers, and I intend to use games to increase effectiveness of learning. I hope to learn here how to succeed at that.

 

How do you plan to contribute?

I'm already busy creating my own games for Agile managers, some of which have been tried on an audience at the Scrum Gathering in Amsterdam. I received plenty of positive feedback. Before the p4a11 conference I will have created more games, and will have tested them in several other contexts. I can share my experiences at p4a11.


 

Stefan Huber

I am working as an agile consultant, coach and trainer and love getting to know the working styles and management cultures of different teams and peoples. In general my customers a trying to get more agile, introduce scrum and/or get better at developing products truely fulfilling their customers needs, thus growing their business in an emergent way.

 

  • What's your experience using Games in coaching teams toward being Agile / Lean?

At the moment games are a real not part of the toolbox I am able to use. I myself made good as well as not so good experiences with games in trainings. I think it is not easy to get the message through by using games. If this works, games are great communication tools. Still this is not easy and requires experience with the game as well as a very clear understanding what the game is useful for. 

But all the time it was fun and created a notion of flow in the group playing together.
Also for creating flow experiences I use sometimes warm-up games from improv theatre with good success

  • What do you plan to learn / explore / play at this conference? 

I want to try out games to learn how to use them, what the game is useful for and what are the prerequisites in terms of openness of the players and pre-knowledge needed.
Also I want to ask tough questions on the games, to get a clear understanding what its uses are. And also I think the benefit of games need not to be exaggerated: they may only offer a naive "proof" and this has to be made clear. When are we fooling our participants by using a game? I will ask questions on that too ;-)

 

  • How do you plan to contribute?

Playing games and asking questions about the games, with an agile enthusiast perspectives as well as a sceptical game player.
Also I am planning to contribute some improv games I know. If there are other improv actors we could have a performance or something, as at agile coach camp maybe?

 


Melanie Meinen

Since 2008 I´ve been working as a marketing coordinator for an international company and always been very keen in making worklife satisfying and fun. After getting hooked to agile  and strategic play by a friend's passion and enthusiasm I now want to dive into the agile way of thinking, playing and working myself. Being a playful and curious character I look forward to find a professional use for these characteristics.

 

At Play4agile in February I’m looking forward to go exploring- further possibilities, ideas, the community, to develop my abilities, spark others, thoughts.

 

I will contribute open eyes, an open mind and heart, my passion for and skill to find patterns and joyful participation in teamwork and games. The straight and clear view of my surroundings is accompanied with a good dash of black humour and the strive for the daily occassion for a hearty laugh.

 


Alexander van der Berg

 

Since 2008 I work in the software quality assurance business and since about half a year I work as a freelancer.

I take the time between my projects to learn and improve my knowledge, e.g. by attending user groups and conferences.

 

What's your experience in using Games for coaching teams toward being Agile?

At #xdde10, where I met some of you, I played agile games for the first time, e.g. the Perfection Game and the Marshmallow Challenge. I liked playing them, because they provide a funny way of learning.

 

What do you plan to learn / explore / play at this conference?

I would like to learn how to convince people that it is worth to try the Agile way. Games are a good way to present Agile because learning is much easier if it is fun.

Additionally I plan to use the experience of the participating agile coaches to improve my behaviour in communicating improvements to colleagues and customers. I know how to do software quality assurance and I am Certified ScrumMaster. Now I am looking for a way to propose process improvements, because improving the process can be much more useful than trying to improve software quality without changing the process.

 

How do you plan to contribute?

As I do not have much experience with agile games I can give feedback from an uninfluenced and unbiased position.

With my quality assurance view I am an expert to find opportunities to improve the games and coaching methods, which I will be glad to share.

 

Please feel free to get in touch with me:

alexander@vanderberg.de

http://vanderberg.de

https://twitter.com/alex235

 


Holger Koschek

 

As a father of three girls, I am a 'play-boy' by nature. Games also play an increasing role in my coaching an training for agile teams and organizations. In our trainings, we found out that games make the difference between understanding and internalizing the agile values, principles and practices. This observation abandons the prejudice that playing games is not serious enough for the business world.

 

I am also a passionate storyteller. Being a father with bedtime-story-addicted girls helped a lot in developing this skill. A first result of this passion is my agile fairytale "Geschichten vom Scrum" (www.scrum-geschichten.de - unfortunately only in German yet). I also held a workshop on storytelling at the XP Days Germany 2010 in Hamburg. I am convinced that narrative thinking is a valuable add-on to the 'numbers rule' attitude of today's organizations, since sometimes a story tells you more about a client/product/department/idea than hard facts will do.

 

At Play4Agile, I would like to learn more games, especially for teaching the agile values, since this is (from my point of view) the most important part when transforming an organization towards agile. I would also like to discuss how games and storytelling can be combined for teaching, training and coaching agile.

 

Twitter: @holgerkoschek

XING

Blog: www.thinkopen.de | blog.holisticon.de

 


Antti Kirjavainen

Antti KirjavainenI work as a software developer in a team lead / technical project manager role. I have a background in researching the use of video games for learning and have researched and developed learning games for the past 7 years. I also have a degree in Drama Education.

 

What's your experience in using Games for coaching teams toward being Agile?

I do not have that much experience in using games for coaching teams. The most game-like activities for teams Ive been involved with have been game-like negotiating tools and resource-allocation decision-making tools. I have been using more game-like techniques in experimental product development to support collaborative idea and concept creation with stakeholders.

 

What do you plan to learn / explore / play at this conference?

I'm interested in exploring the different games that demostrate the value of agile and lean practices and principles through modeling their emergent properties. As I have a background in learning game research, I also plan to look at the games themselves presented and played at the event more closely to explore how their mechanics and interactions support learning and understanding. 

 

How do you plan to contribute?

I have several concepts and early designs for games that fit the theme, both collaborative and single player web games as well as "table-top" story games and applied drama excercises (along the lines of improv, forum theatre etc.) that demonstrate the value of agile and lean practices through the systems modeled with them. I plan to produce working prototypes of some of these games to play at the event and to support dialogue of the uses, feasibility and further design of these kinds of games.

 

I'm looking forward for P4A, please give me a shout if you feel like it.

Twitter: @anttiki

Blog: http://learninggamedev.wordpress.com/ 


Carsten Sahling

 

As an Agile Coach, I am detecting different customer reactions depending on the format of our workshops. If a 3-4 hours theoretical workshop is held, every customer is willing to think about using Agile Methods in their daily work. But if a 2 day course is held with almost the same theoretical content, the costumer normally is enthusiastic and longing to start the very next day. The difference is the practice of agile methods on the one hand, but also the playful approach when it comes to explaining the agile values and practices on the other hand. It’s not only about visualization of values but also about simply relaxing and having fun. In addition the team building aspect of playing games is a very valuable one as well.

 

This is where I am using Agile Games at the moment, not with every-day coaching, but I am keen to learn introducing games in the coaching part.

 

At the XP-Days 2010 in Hamburg I held a Gaming Session that was real fun for me and the participants and I would love to share “my” games and learn others that I am not aware of yet.

Twitter: @CarstenSahling

Xing

 


Sandra Sieroux

I love playing games in many fashions and they have been an enriching part of my life for many years – be it avoiding Tenosynovitis while saving the world in Japanese console games, sharing stories with my friends in our weekly RPG session, stopping the Ancient Ones from taking over the accursed village of Arkham or wracking my brain on a match of Shougi. Since I started my journey as an Agile Coach this year, I am intrigued by the possibility to integrate my first and foremost hobby into my work life.

 
I will bring my enthusiasm for games and the agile way of life to the table. I’m a keen observer and hope to be helpful for others as feedback giver and discussion partner.


Rolf Dräther

 

After years of checking and experimenting with various pieces of agile methods and techniques three years ago my team and I  started implementing Scrum. More and more I became a coach of my team and tested new ways to help them getting more effective and self organized. One way I found was to play little games to get them more focussed or to become relaxed or happier.

Some of these games (7 WarmUps 2 Go) I shared with others at XPDays Germany 2010.

I'd like to play and learn more games and how to use them to teach people agility the easy way. That's one of my reasons to be part of play4agile.

The book I used to find games and warmups for meetings is full of games I'd never tried before and I would be glad to play some of them with everyone at play4agile.

 

Twitter: @rdraether

 


Natalia Kolupaeva

1. What's your experience using Games in coaching teams toward being Agile / Lean?

I am a game hunter :) I strongly believe that games are the very first tool for serious learning. During my classes I always try to teach with games and fun. Even and especially if the topic seems to be non-game-friendly (for example, design patterns or refactoring). Each time before training I start to surf Internet for some new and fresh ideas. When nothing could help I invent something by my own. Usually it is a new application for some well known non-IT game. And of course I am always eager to play an interesting game myself.

 

2. What do you plan to learn / explore / play at this conference?

I hope to play new games or help to invent some. 

I am really interested in 2 topics: games with paradox inside and games for everyday.

     -"Games for everyday": I experience difficulties with playing small games in casual environment. 

             Problem 1 - I know very few such games (1-5 minutes long). 

             Problem 2 - they should be suitable for non-game-friendly environment. It is really easy to play games with people who are on some masterclass or training. They are already in a                              correspondent mood and implicitly agreed to play. But I almost don't know games that will be suitable if you want to play with your colleagues in "under-pressure"                              situation or quickly explain some idea with games for top-level executives. It will be interesting for me to learn such ones.

     -"Games with paradox": I find such games very useful. They could prove the idea which is hard to believe in. But after playing there is no need for extra words. 

 

3. How do you plan to contribute?

I will give all myself to playing and new games invention activities. I would give my honest and serious feedback. I would be glad to help with discussion facilitation or organisational questions. 

 

I am really excited about meeting so many great people and playing together. 

 

 


Aleksey Kolupaev

 

What's your experience using Games in coaching teams toward being Agile / Lean?

 

I realized that the best way to explain something - is to make a person an inventor of this idea. To give right basement for unavoidable conclusion. Or (this also happens) to find a very new alternative opinion out of it. Game is an analogy for processes and one of the most powerful tool for making the right set and setting. Game is an easy and kind way to make someone building a strategy, a behavior inside given limitation, known as rules. Different rules - different strategies. Is that possible out of the game?

And - which is more important, it's fun. It makes people smiling and I believe that this is the best state in the world. All the most terrible mistakes are made with the serious face!

 

What do you plan to learn / explore / play at this conference?

 

I want to play more games and see how experienced coaches and trainers are making their sets and settings. I'm wondering which ideas are known for being good to be explained by playing some game. And, to be honest, I like to play.

 

How do you plan to contribute?

 

I'm going to offer myself as a stubborn (but constructive and smart) critic, this is my nature. Do you want to hesitate some idea you are sure about? Discuss it with me! Do you want to see how else people could play your game? Play with me! Do you need to debate? Let me know your point and I'll have some arguments against. Other opinions, generated to be an opposition to any specific position are my hobby. I just like to see how serious and prepared are people in their opinions.

 

My topic of interest is game strategies. Each game stimulates to follow some strategy, and, actually, there is a whole Games Theory about it. I want to discover which strategies in game are stimulating Agile behavior in life.


Dieter Bertsch

I’ve been working for the IT business for more then 20 years in different roles for Allianz Deutschland in Munich. In early 2007 I came to agile methods and Scrum and have been convinced, that this is the right way for me and our work with the Allianz.

After working as a Scrum Master for about half a year and a couple of teams, I worked together with some external Coaches to build up an competence centre for training and coaching within our company.

 

So, now working as a fulltime Trainer and Coach I’m always looking for new ideas and possibilities to exchange experiences.

 

By joining the Agile Coach Camp 2010 I leaned a lot by being involved in the agile community. Therefore I also want to participate at play4agile.

 

Dieter

 

PS: Playing is more than having fun!


Urs Reupke

‘Gaming professionally since 1992’ would sum it up quite well, but for your entertainment, I’ll expound on the subject:
I’ve never been paid for coaching people. Neither have I for playing games.


As such, my experience is limited to playing everything I could get a hold of when I found time to do so.
Fantasy Roleplaying and deep tactical and strategic games are my favourites. I hope to learn how to use these passions to enhance my workplace - and if anyone’s interested in a gamer’s take on these things, I’m glad to contribute.
If there’s a chance to explore games that go beyond pure imagination or resource management, I’d be happy to hop in.

 


Simon Roberts

As an agile coach and Scrum trainer I use games as an integrated part of my approach to both training and coaching. Over the last couple of years, I have seen a shift in my use of games from longer Scrum simulations (e.g. the ubiquitous 59-minute Scrum or lego based simulations) to shorter games that are more aimed at helping players to have those a-ha moments that can result in (initially) subtle changes in mindset.

 

There's still a place for longer simulations but in a training context, time is often very short and I believe that mindset change is more important than experiencing the complete Scrum framework.

 

I recently attended Sharon Bowman's "Training from the Back of the Room" workshop and I am continuing to refine my training and coaching based on the experience. In general it is resulting in even shorter games in line with her maxim "shorter trumps longer".

 

I will attend Play4Agile keen to exchange experiences, games and related exercises with other coaches and trainers - ever on the lookout for that elusive game that perfectly models Scrum yet only needs 15 minutes including debriefing!

 

simon.roberts@scrumcenter.com

@srob


Bruno Sbille

 

My name is Bruno Sbille and I'm from Belgium.
I'm crazy about (Agile) Coaching and Training and helping teams to be effective.
I try to be active in the Agile community by sharing my passion like we did with this video: http://vimeo.com/4587652 (Scrum methodology)
I'm in touch with Agile since 5 years and I have discovered the Agile Games quite recently... And I must admit that I felt in love immediately :-)

I give Agile training and during my trainings I mainly use 2 games:

- XP Game (http://www.xp.be/xpgame.html)
- Fairly tales games (http://www.noop.nl/2009/02/checklist-for-an-agile-game.html)

I've also set up myself 2 smalls games to introduce the role in Scrum and the tasks (cutting)
I plan to explain it on my Blog as soon as I have time ;-)

In my training I love this approach:
Experience it first, feel it, learn by yourself and then we debrief and explain the theoretical concepts.
And Agiles Games are really a perfect match for that.
I use also Agiles games in traditional coaching (not only Agile)

I love those kind of techniques Scrum, Agile Games because...
Often people first think: What is that silly thing...!?
And then you have this "ha-ha" moment !

I want to learn new games, sharing best practices about "how to set up a game" and meet people sharing a passion for Agile Games. I would like also to be able to match which game should I play to reach this objective. And I want to meet people sharing my passions

I plan to contribute by sharing, presenting and actively participating

Bruno
My Agile Blog: http://brunosbille.com


Tobias Schlosser

 

Tobias Schlsoser

  I am working as freelancing systemic & agile coach as well as a classical project manager.

  Establishing a sustainable spirit of trust,and collaboration within an agile team may be one
  of the key challenges for an agile coach. Particullarly when setting up new teams and integrating

  new members there is a need for an efficient and effective way to do this. 
  The simple answer is using games to let people learn the advantages of the agile way in a most joyful way.

  This is shown not only by practical coaching experience but also by some current brain research studies.

  I'm expecting much fun, new and unexperienced agile games and may provide some background information,
  why the games are working. 

 

 Tobias.Schlosser@nibasco.de


Ole Jepsen (Eggs and Greek Music...?)

 

 

Hi Folks. I am Ole from Denmark - and I have been involved in the International Agile community since 2002. After I discovered the Manifesto - and thereby, that others were thinking the same rebel-thoughts as I did, I have been addicted to Agile. I founded Danish Agile User Group and was one of the founders of Agile Project Leadership Network (apln.org) - and I was leading the APLN/DSDM creation the Agile Project Leadership Certification Programme, which now runs under DSDM.

 

Experience with Games

 

 

I have used games, roleplays and simulations in my training and coaching activities for more than 20 years. Lately the XP Game has been very popular with my clients. I am playing The Planning Game (is that really a game...?) al the time. I am using EGGS and GREEK MUSIC (!!!??) in my training sessions. 

 

I have also created (and/or adapted) a number of simulations/games myself. I am very interested in human nature - and how the left/right brain works - and how we can use that knowledge to create better communication and better common understanding. So games, that plays with - or proof - some aspects of how human nature works, are high on my list.

 

Learn / explore / play 

 

I am planning to have a lot of fun - and create relationships.

 

I want to share my games/simulations with others - and discuss how they can be improved. I am planning to learn a number of new games for my training activities. And I hope to learn more about game/simulation development - and to create some funny games with other participants too... 

 

How will I contribute

 

Share my games - and my experiences.

 

I am an experienced facilitator - so if need be, I can facilitate some of the time. But not all of the time, because I want to play and brainstorm and explore with others too.

 

I will try to drive some of the discussions towards how we get at deeper understanding of the human nature, and thereby create some design criteria for new games and simulations.

 

ole@goagile.dk - www.goagile.dk


Ralf Kruse

Hi,

I'm working as an agile coach at agile42, use agile games in training and coaching insights into agile and find them pretty valueable as a vehicle to let people learn about that. For example I use the lego game in my trainings. I hope to learn to build experience games I don't know yet, extend/adatpt existing ones and develop new ones. I'm searching for new games that I can use in training and coaching to bring over some insight in agile by playing games. Some ideas I already have in mind :-)


Andreas Thier

Hi, I'm a systems thinking (un)consultant and facilitator experienced in developing and implementing IT Services and Processes. As a certified LEGO Serious Play facilitator, project manager and risk manager I use games and playful approaches together with my customers to create new solutions, design changes and to better run agile projects. I'm looking for a good time, lots of fun and new ideas and great minds and I can contribute by sharing my ideas and experiences, facilitating LEGO Serious Play, taking photos and being an active participant.

 

andreas.thier@hoffmannconsulting.de - http://hoffmannconsulting.de  - http://strategicplay.de

 


Kai Beck

A long time ago, the only person, who was allowed to speak the truth was the king's jester (Hofnarr). He influenced the king and the whole kingdom with his apparently silly play. The king was to stubborn and snobbish to accept any others ideas. Do you think, we are so far away from all that, when you think of all the little kingdoms the people build in their companies?

As a regular team member, I mostly did'nt have the kings power to change things, but as a project manager and agile facilitator I have to. So I need a different tool. The jester can show us how to use humor and absurdness to influence balky people.

For my four year old daughter everything is a game. She taught me to play role games again. She slips in all kind of roles to get an idea of how it feels in a different skin. Sometimes, it is not her, who drops the glas of juice from the table but her teddy-bear. She does not want to clean up when I ask her, but her teddy-bear does when I ask him (sometimes ;-).

Together with you I hope to find out more ways to teach people without classroom presentations.

 

email (at) gettingagile (dot) de - http://gettingagile.de

 


 

Christian Maier

 

1. Since many years I work with companies, leaders, managers, trainers and coaches concerning the question “how to move people to encourage them to move themselves”. With the concept of “inner game” I link the inner and the outer game. Beside many games I use moving elements like juggling, shooting with a bow, skiing, playing Golf, tennis, hiking etc.

 

2. I’m looking forward to get to know the other participants and to know more about their link to teamgames, learning, Coaching etc. and to make inspiring personal encounters.

 

3. I can learn everybody in 20 minutes juggling.

 


My homepages:

www.innergame.de

www.wandercoaching.de

 

My network:

www.bewegendes-coaching.de

 

 


Glenn Waters

 

My passion in work is helping software delivery teams suffer less. I live in Ottawa, Canada and I'm crazy excited to have the opportunity to learn more about applying play in the work environment. In my training I use games and hands on experiences to help get ideas and concepts across. I work with teams at all levels of the organization from developers where the real value is created up to senior executives helping with technical, process, and organizational challenges.

 

What's your experience in using Games for coaching teams toward being Agile?

When I work with teams games are the most successful tool that I have used to help get ideas across and to give people experience. Unfortunately my toolbox is a little light and having a few days respite at this conference should help to fill up the box a bit more! I am a big fan of "Training from the Back of the Room" and would enjoy the opportunity to practice some of those skills.

 

What do you plan to learn / explore / play at this conference?

Everything and nothing :)  I want to interact with as many people as possible. Learn new styles, perspectives, tools, and techniques. For me, it is the people and the new friends that I meet -- and it's great we all share a common passion!

 

How do you plan to contribute?

My passion, humor, wit, experience, perspectives, and challenges. I plan on helping any way that I can. I will likely have an open space topic or two to contribute by the time I arrive.

 

Oh yah, I love to cook!

 


Enyo Markovski 

 

I am an e-commerce project manager and consultant for medium sized and large international companies. Although I was using agile approaches from six-sigma and prince2, my first formally agile project was in 2010. I am passionate about improving ways of doing things and finding new and better ways to product effective and sustainable results. I am a six-sigma master black belt professional and prince2 practitioner. I just completed writing a book on e-commerce project management. "The Laws of E-commerce Project Management"

 

I am very passionate about how games break the ice in a team on another level, sharpens the focus and boost learning. I would love to find together more ways on how to implement games in the day2day agile development and management work

 

I can contribute with creative ideas, lean thinking, share thoughts and experience from large e-commerce projects and lots of positive energy.

 

 

 

 


Julian Fitzell

 

At my company, we have been exploring a number of themes around Agile processes and presenting some of these ideas at conferences over the past year. We have been experimenting with an Agile methodology called Wolf Pack Programming, which takes practices already supposedly at their extremes and makes them even more so, and running hands-on workshops to explore these ideas. We have also been thinking about the decreasing agility of Agile and trying to develop games and exercises that help get groups discussing these ideas. As a result, we have also been attending a lot of Agile conferences and playing a lot of Agile games. :)

 

I hope to find ways to improve some of the games/exercises/workshops we have been developing and our facilitation of them. One of my main challenges at the moment is finding appropriate game metaphors to model the desired aspect of a real-world topic. I find games often over-simply or over-prescribe in order to make their point and this leaves participants challenging the nature of the game instead of accepting the concept it was trying to demonstrate. I have some experiences to share and hopefully there will be some really good discussions and creative ideas.  


 

Jon Jagger

Barbel.jpg

I'm a 2C years old (in hexadecimal) self employed software coach-consultant-mentor-trainer-programmer etc specializing in agility, systems thinking, testing driven development, and deliberate practising. I used to be the ECMA TG2 C# convenor. I've had a couple of C# books published. I'm married to the beautiful Natalie, and proud father of Ellie, Penny and Patrick. I love freshwater fishing. River fishing in particular. I live in England. On twitter I'm @JonJagger. I attended Jerry Weinberg's Problem Solving Leadership course a while ago and was massively impressed by his use of experiential learning. Since then I've been increasingly using games when coaching. In particular I've invented two games with a strong focus on encouraging collaboration

I'm looking forward to making new friends, getting lots of new ideas and giving lots away too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Wolfgang Wiedenroth

Working as ScrumMaster I am always looking for new ways to help and coach the teams I am working with. Games weren't part of my arsenal, but it is time to change that and which place would be better to do so than the play4agile event. By the way it will be my first bigger meeting in the agile community. So my experience regarding games for coaching teams are limited to the Ball Game, the Marshmallow Challenge which I both played myself and the Scrum Lego City game which I attended at the sideline.

I plan to learn more about games I read about already, by talking to the people which used them or by playing them myself. I also want to learn what different fields games can be used for. My contribution will be my questions and hopefully good ideas I have. I will also volunteer for games ;-)

You can follow me on twitter @wwiedenroth, take a look into my blog AgileManic or add me @XING

 


Timofey Yevgrashyn

I'm Agile coach from Ukraine. Practicing mostly with outsourcing companies and helping to implement Distributed Agile. 

Evangelizing Agile since 2007 when we established Agile Ukraine user group. Being project manager and Scrum practitioner I practice and share my knowledge over trainings, workshops and my blog "The Improved Methods". Also speaking on conferences (Agile Eastern Europe in particular).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • What's your experience using games for Agile Transitions?

I'm played first games in 2007 and since that do this with my teams and on my trainings. "Serious games" are really critical and powerful tool for making people think about concepts by doing and getting practice.   

  • What do you plan to learn / explore at this conference?

Would like to meet coaches from other countries, un-virtualize with some of them and meet others with whom we already met on Agile Eastern Europe.

My dream is to learn about short games that make people better understand and change mindset. 

  • How do you plan to contribute?  

 

I have experience in handling a big number of games. Also I'll be glad to share experience from "large" games such as Business Value Game. Also, I have idea/prototype of table Scrum game - will be glad to elaborate with colleagues.

 

 

Please enter your position paper below this line ...


Waiting List 

 


Erich Ziegler

 

What's your experience in using Games for coaching teams toward being Agile?

Right from the start of my career as a management trainer and facilitator in 1995 I integrated games and playing into all of my seminars and workshops. Suggestopedia – holistic learning and teaching methods (see:www.dgsl.de) and the inner game approach (see: www.innergame.de) increasingly enabled me to use games as a method to create trust, power, self confidence and fun in my participants. And when I published a collection of 200 seminar games in 2006, I once again received a boost in this.

I’m specializing in a mixture of team development and classic facilitation (meta plan cards and pin board) where the first is methodically game based and in the second games are embedded as energizers. This results in a lively, creative, and fun sparkling event.

 

What do you plan to learn / explore / play at this conference?

Team development is my main focus so I expect to learn more about ideas on team games. I’d like to explore how my findings can be expanded by those of the other participants and finally I want to learn more about Agile, StrategicPlay, SeriousPlay, Lego, etc.

 

How do you plan to contribute?

You’ll find my creativity more on the application side, i.e. how to link the experience of a certain game to the topic at hand. I love to experiment and my insights as well as my judgments come from intuition more than from intellectual analysis. I like a good laugh as well as thoughtful reflection.

Besides, I know a lot of games that might be worth exploring.

My website is: teamenwickler.eu


 

 

 


 

Agilists who intended to come, but sadly will note be able to make it this time

Position papers of Agilists who will not be able to make it this time . Hope to see you the next time.

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