SessionSix002

Software Development - The Board Game
FionaCharles and MichaelBolton

You�re a software developer. Pressured by customers, your management has committed to an impossible release deadline, and the sales people have sold new licenses for the product with features that don�t yet exist. Your stock options could make you a millionaire if the company does well. But will it? Can you and your team win by skill alone?

Or maybe you�re the CEO, struggling to keep the company afloat. The new product will determine the company�s fate, but the project is woefully behind schedule and the quality is doubtful. Success will depend on product quality and beating the competition to market. Will your development team pull off a heroic coup and save the company, or will they turn out a product that�s full of bugs? What can you do to assure they succeed?

Playing the Software Development Game will involve role-playing, teamwork, competition, and life-like interactions between skill and luck. It�s intended to be an entertaining way to experience the effects of general systems thinking, as we play through positive or negative feedback loops, and attempt interventions.

After we play, we�ll debrief and share our experiences and learnings.

ProgramScheduleAndSessions2006

Updated: Sunday, March 26, 2006