24 October 2011
ralfkruse81
Software is getting more and more complex and a lot of projects fail. The students experienced this problem simple exercise: The marshmallow challenge. The students had to build a tower out of spaghettis, cover-tape, a string and with a marshmallow on top in a fixed timebox of 18 minutes.
Well, the exercise worked out as expected. Three of four teams had no tower at the end. Pretty comparable to real software projects :-)
What happend?:
I gave them a complex environment with fixed circumstances and rules. Instead of trying and failing fast and often, they discussed nearly until the timebox was over or they added the marshmallow in the last second and the tower broke under the weight.
After also some other interactive sessions like the well known ball point game the students got the message and learned:
- Assumptions lead to wrong results - proof them fast and often
- Build your ...
17 October 2011
ralfkruse81
When I studied „Computer Science“, I did not learn much about agile software development, although, according to my curriculum I should have.Now, being an Agile Coach, I like to go back to the roots, helping “Agility” to become a part of the universities topics. My old university, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW), gives me the chance to do so.
As we all know a lot of projects failed in the past for various reason. Agile methods like Scrum seems to help solving that issue and therefore more and more companies start moving in the agile direction. My goal is to give the students an understanding of agile beyond the pure mechanics, so that they are learning the theory as well as real ways to work agile in order to prepare them for the real work environments.
In the lecture we will see and experience well known agile approaches like Scrum and Kanban, get an understanding of their background (Lean ...
12 May 2011
marion
One marshmallow, 20 pieces of spaghetti, a bit of string and some tape. How can children learn agile leadership and life skills with those items you ask? Welcome to the Marshmallow Challenge!
(Upper Lynn Elementary, North Vancouver, May 11, 2011) The challenge was on today for Mrs Horner’s Grade 3 class to learn a few life lessons and have fun while doing it! The students were asked to build the tallest, freestanding structure with a marshmallow on the top made only using spaghetti, string and tape. Who would have thought a marshmallow weighed so much? And so the learning begins.
Active parents Dave Sharrock, agile42 Coach and Doug Jaremchuk who consult in Lean and Agile methods felt that the Marshmallow Challenge was not only beneficial for corporate executives, but also a ...
Ralf Kruse
