As an Agilist, if you have wondered what lessons do we learn from playing some games, this is a good deck for you to recognize the underlying principles of #pennygame and #pizza game.

1. Which #Kanban game
benefits my team?
MINI SERIES
PENNYGAME OR PIZZAGAME

2. Intended
outcomes
1. Mini games are fun .
2. They involve serious play, thus we
need to pay attention to the
‘rules’ of the game.
3. Participants benefit when they
recognize the underlying
principles
4. Enables a team to understand
how to construct their Kanban
board.
A few coaches and I were discussing about the flow of activities for
an upcoming Kanban workshop. We got into a discussion about
which game would benefit the team. The team is moving away from
Waterfall.
As I had already written about the benefits of the Penny game in an
earlier post (Mini series - Game 1, Modified as the pencil game, since
we didn’t have coins) – I was able to articulate the learning from each
game to the team.
Penny game is generally intended to educate Leadership and
Managers to understand the big difference between large batches
and individual optimization VS small batches and optimizing the
whole.
While the Pizza game (as the creators noted), enables a beginner
Kanban team understand the intricacies of the process and the
underlying system.

3. PENNY GAME:
One big takeaway:
Recognizing the difference between individual
optimization vs Optimizing the whole.
Other:
Small batches enable flow and decrease
variability.
When work slips due to various factors, it is
easier to get back on track.
End product starts trickling in early.
My favorite: An individual and her team
performs almost identically.
Link to game:
http://tastycupcakes.org/2013/05/the-penny-
game/
PIZZA GAME:
One big takeaway:
“Swarming” does not occur instantaneously.
It is a gradual process after facing failures.
Other:
Queue length needs to be actively managed,
else WIP limits cannot be established.
Participants get caught up in their own roles.
My favorite: A team is able to translate this
learning to creating their first version of the
Kanban board.
Link to game:
https://www.agile42.com/en/training/kanba
n-pizza-game/