Whose Project is it Anyway?
Whose Project is it Anyway? Presenters: Bonnie Aumann, Rob Kinyon
From organizing the backlog of stories to choosing a branching strategy, developers and clients can find themselves wondering who’s really driving the project. These problems are only exacerbated when an outside team is brought into the client-space. In this session we will explore organizational patterns and anti-patterns, particularly focusing on conflict resolution, via improvisational role-playing.
Roleplay Structure - 10 min each. * Divide up into groups of 4-5. * Two people are given an outline of a situation based on their character’s point of view. * They then role-play to find a solution. * Feedback given from watchers. * Roleplay a second time. * Feedback and conclusions.
Session Structure 0:00 - 0:15 Introduction and Overview of conflict management principles
0:15 - 0:45 Demo a role play with a volunteer from the audience
0:45 - 0:55 Break into groups
0:55 - 1:20 Role play until 10 minutes before end, swapping pairs
1:20 - 1:30 Recap and share conclusions
Alternate: Instead of having prepared scripts, the group could come up with a list of problems/problematic people. When broken out into groups, that person would play the role of the troublesome person they described with another person responding. This would require more time.
NOTE: This basic structure was used effectively in a “Agile Coaching 101” workshop run by Command Information at Agile2007. The difference I see here is that this is directed at the whole team experience.