The 'Power of 13' simulation, created at Agile Games 2014, is designed to illustrate various collaborative development scenarios through rounds that mimic different work styles: individual silos, pulling work, pairing, and swarming. Each round utilizes dice rolls to determine card completion, with developers working both independently and in groups to enhance coordination and efficiency. The simulation concludes with a debrief to reflect on the outcomes and effectiveness of collaboration in each round.

1. Collaboration:
Power of 13
Simulation
This game was created at Agile Games 2014 by –
Jamie Gaull
Robert Smith
Peter Barzdines
Bobby Zhakov
Paul Boos

2. Power of 13
Goal:
Work off the the number of cards equal to the number of developers
within your iteration’s length
Mechanics:
• We need a ‘Scrum Master’ and ‘Product Owner’ – everyone else is
a development team member
• Each card is worked off whenever a 13 is rolled on 3 dice (~10%
chance per roll)
• The product owner will count off the number of cards completed
using a pen and a piece of paper
• The scrum master will use another suit of cards to count down your
iteration of 13 work days (3 week Sprints, the other two days are
sprint review, retro, and planning = 15 days)
• We will mark down what day you meet your goal and the total # of
cards worked off

3. Power of 13 :: Round 1
This round will simulate developers working alone in their
silos/cubes
• Each developer is responsible for completing a card from
the backlog
• Each developer rolls the dice once per day; the scrum
master keeps track of the 13 work days using the suit of
cards he or she has
• If a dice roll has a sum total of exactly ‘13’, they state “my
card is DONE.” The product owner makes a tick mark for
the each completed card. The developer stops work and
pats himself on the back.
• Record cards completed once all the work days are
completed or when everyone says they are ‘DONE’; also
record what day the required # of stories was completed.

4. Power of 13 :: Round 2
This round will simulate pulling additional work after you
complete your work
• The team is still responsible for completing at least the a
number of cards from the backlog equal to the number of
developers
• Each developer rolls the dice once per day; the scrum master
keeps track of the 13 work days using the suit of cards he or
she has
• If a dice roll has a sum total of exactly ‘13’, they state “my card
is DONE.” The product owner makes a tick mark to track it
being done. The developer pats himself on the back; however
they may now continue to roll on subsequent days and declare
another card done for each ‘13’ they roll – identify who they
helped if someone else isn’t completed.
• Record cards that were completed and what day the required #
of stories were completed.

5. Power of 13 :: Round 3
• This round simulates pairing to complete work; break
people into pairs to work together – if there are an odd
number of delivery people, one set can be a triad
• The team is still responsible for completing at least the a
number of cards from the backlog equal to the number of
developers
• Each developer rolls the dice once per day; the scrum
master keeps track of the 13 work days using the suit of
cards he or she has
• Once each developer has rolled, they work in their
pairs/triad together to pull as many sums of exactly ‘13’ on
3 dice as possible out of the small pool of dice their paired
(tiad) sets make; each ’13’ identified equals a card worked.
The product owner ticks these off.
• Record cards that were completed and what day the
required # of stories was completed.

6. Power of 13 :: Round 4
• This round simulates collaborative swarming to
complete work
• The team is still responsible for completing at least the
a number of cards from the backlog equal to the
number of developers
• Each developer rolls the dice once per day; the scrum
master keeps track of the 13 work days using the suit
of cards he or she has
• Once each developer has rolled, they work together to
pull as many sums of exactly ‘13’ on 3 dice as possible;
each ’13’ identified equals a card worked. The product
owner ticks these off.
• Record cards that were completed and what day the
required # of stories was completed.

7. Collaboration:
Power of 13
Simulation
Debrief
What did you notice happening?
What did the dice/rolls represent?
How did the effectiveness change in each round?
How does or does not this correlate
with how real work happens?
How did the coordination
in the last round feel?
What did allowing a person
to continue work simulate?

8. FURTHER FACILITATION NOTES
Power of 13 Collaboration Game

9. Supplies Needed
• Deck(s) of Cards: each team will need one suit
of (13) cards for the Scrum Master, a flip chart
to record/graph results, a colored marker for
each team for recording results, a pen and
paper for the product owner to track the
number of cards per iteration.
• 3 dice per developer
= 3 x number of people – 3 x number of teams

10. Scenario Notes
• Round 1: This is a project manager assigning tasks
and that is the only expectation for a team
member to complete – essentially there is no
collaboration.
• Round 2: This moves to a pull-based work system
as most Agile development teams do, but still
little collaboration.
• Round 3: This simulates pair programming.
• Round 4: This simulates and entire group effort
on cards, much like mob programming.

11. Optional Techniques
• It is often advantageous to dual hat the product owner and scrum
master roles in the game only because the game doesn’t the
burden players much in workload
• In rounds 1 & 2, you may want to allow another developer other
than the person rolling to point out whether a ’13’ was rolled – you
could call this a peer review
• An optional round between rounds 1 & 2 could be one where you
may retain 1-2 dice to the next day staying at the same numbers
they rolled prior, the remaining die/dice get rerolled the next day;
this simulates allowing someone to get in their ‘flow’ and continue
from where they left off – this generally increases the delivered
number of cards a small amount; once 13 is rolled remember they
must reroll all dice
• Allow the Scrum Master to help in picking out the 13 patterns in
any round from 2 on… This is simulating them being facilitative in
nature.