Playing Games With Your Team?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of moderating one of the Project World and World Congress for Business Analysts year-long learning web seminars. Our speaker of the day Peter Saddington (better known to those in the twitter world as @agilescout) was discussing key characteristics of an agile project owner.

As part of his presentation he mentioned the merits of playing games to get to know and better understand your project team. Two resources he pointed to for finding appropriate games for this were TastyCupcakes.org and GoGameStorm.com.

Have you ever turned towards interactive experiences like this to get to know a project team or work though a problem? What was the result? What game did you use? If not, looking at the two websites above, would you ever consider using this technique?

Share with us in the comments!

Michelle LeBlanc is a Social Media Strategist at IIR USA with a specialization in marketing. She may be reached at mleblanc@iirusa.com. Follow tweets from her and the rest of the Project World team @Project_World.

Free Web Seminar: Creating the Vision and Making it Real: How to Leverage Project Management for Results

Here is the first in a series of webinars that Project World will put together in anticipation for the event in November in Anaheim, California. Lisa DiTullio will be presenting this seminar on Thursday, September 10th from 2:00PM-3:00PM EDT. Here's a brief description of the webinar.

Want to enhance competency and performance in strategic thinking, strategic planning and project management? This program is specifically designed to promote the understanding and practice in the “Business Circle of Life”. Starting with strategic planning and concluding with plan execution, participants will learn how to take a step back, define their strategy, and make it real through successful execution. This program is ideal for business leaders who are responsible for creating and executing a business plan, but who are unsure how to do it.

What you will learn:

• Strategic Thinking: How to Assess the Environment
• Strategic Planning: How to Set the Direction
• Defining Targets: How to Set Goals and Establish Performance Measures
• Making the Plan Real: How to Leverage Project Management for Results

About the speaker: Lisa DiTullio

Lisa is principal of Lisa DiTullio & Associates, a practice dedicated to introducing project management as a business competency, enabling
organization to improve decision-making, instill accountability, and enhance communications.

She is the editor of ProjectBestPractices, a quarterly newsletter from ProjectWorld, a regular blogger for the Silicon ValleyPM and ProjectConnections sites, and a contributor to PM Network Magazine. She’s also the author of Simple Solutions: How "Enterprise Project Management" Supported Harvard Pilgrim Health Care's Journey from Near Collapse to #1. Her second book, Project Team Dynamics: Increased Speed, Enhanced Performance is due out the end of this year.

Find out more about Lisa:
http://www.lisaditullio.com

Title: Creating the Vision and Making it Real: How to Leverage Project Management for Results

Date: Thursday, September 10, 2009

Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT

Mention priority code G1M2120W2BLOG
Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/907235425

Complimentary Webinar: Agile Requirements (Not an Oxymoron)

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/810361744
Please mention code: G1M2120W1BLOG

Traditional approaches of requirements seem to contradict how agile teams might approach requirements. Misconceptions abound about how agile projects develop requirements and whether they even do analysis. In practice, agile projects use requirements as the basis for planning, development and delivering business value.

In this Webinar, requirements expert and agile coach Ellen Gottesdiener will describe how agile and requirements combine to form a sound and sensible union. You will learn how business analysis and requirements practices really work on agile projects; ways agile teams represent, verify and validate requirements; and how effective agile teams collaborate around requirements. Join us to learn how agile requirements provide the engine that drives successful delivery of business value.

What you will learn:
•Understand the agile method of developing requirements
•Describe business analysis and requirements practices that change on agile projects
•Understand agile adaptations to “traditional” requirements practices
•Appreciate the value of requirements analysis on agile projects
•Enumerate the ways requirements form the basis for planning on agile projects

Speaker:
Ellen Gottesdiener, Principal Consultant and Founder of EBG Consulting, is an internationally recognized trainer, facilitator, speaker, and expert on collaborative requirements development. Ellen’s company provides high-value training, facilitation, and consulting services to agile and traditional teams. An agile coach and trainer with a passion for agile requirements, Ellen works with large, complex products and helps teams elicit just enough requirements to achieve iteration and product goals.

Ellen’s book Requirements by Collaboration: Workshops for Defining Needs describes how to use multiple models to elicit requirements in collaborative workshops. Her second book, The Software Requirements Memory Jogger, is the “go-to” industry guide for requirements good practices.


Title: Agile Requirements (Not an Oxymoron)

Date: Thursday, April 30, 2009

Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT


After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.