Modern agile teams can be both on-site and remote. Team bonding is important for establishing a healthy work environment and increasing the entire team’s proficiency, efficiency, and productivity.
But sometimes, following the rulebooks to stay within the boundaries doesn’t work well, and that’s where the team-building activities come in.
Modern agile teams are mostly remote and deserve to have fun just like any other human being on the planet. With that in mind, we have 15 agile team-building activities from which you can use one or multiple to increase team morale.
Before we start, let’s look at the definition of virtual team building.
Definition of Virtual Team Building
Virtual team building takes place entirely online with the help of technology. These team-building activities are games where the players are not present in the same room but use the same online communication tool to participate.
15 Agile Games To Play With Your Remote Team For Better Team Bonding
1. Ball Point Game
The ball point game is a great team-building game for agile development teams. Though the game seems simple at surface level, it’s great for understanding agile production and processes.
The objective is for every participant to pass a ball around the table so each team member gets to touch the ball at least once. But one can only earn points if they’re both the first and last to touch the ball.
The entire game is split into three-minute sprints. All teams are given one minute to discuss how many points they want to gather. The second minute is spent passing the ball. The third minute records the total points and reflects on the team’s performance.
Once done, all teams move on to the next sprint. This game teaches self-organization and collaboration as each team moves on from one sprint to another.
2. Battleships
Battleships is a game that originated in the 60s, but it’s a great way of teaching iterative development.
In this game, all developers are divided into two teams, and each team is given a grid to position their battleships. The allotted time for ship deployment is two minutes, and one team cannot see the grid of the other team.
Then, the first team can attack the other team while guessing where the second team’s vessels are placed. The second team informs all the hits and misses to the first team.,
Once the 5 minutes pass, it’s time for the second team to attack the first team, and the first team will also be informed about all the hits and misses, but this time, the feedback is in real-time.
With this twist, the second team has a higher chance of landing more hits. The second team’s success rate increases due to following iterative rules.
3. Emoji Communication Game
Agile relies heavily on seamless and constant communication between all team members. The emoji communication game is a great game for all team members to practice their communication skills.
The game is straightforward. One developer creates an entire message only with emojis, and all the other team members write down their interpretations of the series of emojis on paper.
Once all the members have written down their answers, the creator of the sentence reveals the context and meaning of the sentence.
The game creates awareness that everyone communicates differently, and it’s up to everyone to interpret the right meaning as much as possible to avoid miscommunications.
4. Bubble Point Game
The bubble point game is a fun game that can help team members practice reflecting on their completed iterations and assessing workflows.
The game splits a developer team into multiple groups. The group is provided with a Miro board that displays an image, but a lot of bubbles
cover the image.
The game aims to strategically remove all the bubbles to reveal the image with a clear view. The whole game is divided into five sprints, and all groups can only remove a certain amount of bubbles during each sprint.
The developers can improve their decision-making process after each sprint by reflecting on their decisions to remove the bubbles.
5. Paper Airplane Game
Making a paper airplane sounds simple, right? The game becomes even more intense when you’re not the only one making the plane.
This game aims to create as many paper airplanes as possible. But here’s the catch: each team member can only make one fold before passing the paper to the next team member.
Also, teams only gain points when a plane flies a certain distance. The entire game is split into nine-minute sprints-three minutes for planning, three minutes for building and flying the planes, and the last three for a retrospective.
The game is to get developers comfortable working within short-time sprints and iterating based on the ideas.
6. Chocolate Bar Game
This is the most delicious game on this entire list. Here, a developer takes the product manager role, and the other members act as customers.
The product manager designs a chocolate bar from scratch while selecting the filling, topping, type of chocolate, etc. Once the chocolate is ready, others are then encouraged to taste the chocolate bar and provide feedback for future modifications.
Product managers must continue to act on the feedback till they create a chocolate bar that’s ultimately deemed delicious by everyone.
This game, of course, is to teach the team members the idea of iterating on a product based on
7. Coin Game
The idea of the coin game is to teach the developers the value of working in frequent small batches.
In this game, all team members are divided into workers and managers, so each worker must have one manager. There should also be a player who can take on the role of a customer.
Then, twenty coins are placed on the table, five of each type, with all the coins facing the same direction. The first worker then flips all the coins and passes them on to the next one.
The managers time the coin-flipping process, and the customers time the entire process of coin-flipping and handing them over.
During the second iteration, the number of coins is reduced to 15 or 10, reducing the delivery time.
8. Marshmallow Tower
In this game, all the team’s developers come together to create one of the most unstable buildings. Sounds weird? Here’s how it works.
The entire team is split into groups of four members. Each team is given
- Twenty sticks of uncooked spaghetti
- One yard of string
- One yard of tape
- One marshmallow
This game aims to create the tallest freestanding building with the marshmallow on top. The goal has to be achieved within twenty minutes, and the entire process provokes brainstorming and quick decision-making.
9. Sandwich Game
The sandwich game teaches all team members to work as a united group. The objective is just as the name suggests: making a sandwich!
One team member has to provide sandwich-making instructions, but must be as literal as possible. For example, they can’t instruct team members to remove the bread before ripping the package open.
The team members will continue to follow the leader’s instructions and continue to try and create the perfect sandwich. The game is great for creating better collaboration between teammates.
10. Murder Mystery
Ever wanted to feel like Sherlock Holmes? Now you can! The murder mystery game is perfect for assessing the skills to develop strategies using the scrum framework.
The activities of this game promote the idea of problem-solving with the complete collaboration of all teammates to solve the game.
The developers must analyze all evidence from past and present to deduce the problematic component that is dubbed “the murderer” in the game.
These skills are a must in everyday agile development, and this game presents the necessary skills and challenges in a fun way for all teammates to engage.
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How Do These Activities Help The Team?
These games may seem like activities for on-site teams, but all these games can be played using virtual collaboration and communication tools. While these games are highly entertaining, they can teach the basics of agile methodology and its practices entertainingly.
1. Boosts Team Familiarity
This is one of the biggest benefits of these activities. With the games, the team doesn’t only get familiar with agile; it increases familiarity between the team members as well. Team members can increase collaboration when they’re more comfortable around each other.
2. Increases Enthusiasm In Engagement
Powerpoint presentations are favorites of the corporate world, but they’re more yawn-inducing. Team building activities can enhance the enthusiasm of team members for engagement.
3. Improves Creativity And Problem-Solving Skills
Games are a fun way to become more creative by implementing creative thinking for winning. Most of these games also include critical thinking for solving different problems that can improve problem-solving skills.
4. Promotes Cohesive Team Behavior
Team cohesion is vital to ensure proper communication between teammates and actively implement user feedback and other solutions. Team members learn to improve their cohesiveness through the games to reach better conclusions.
To Wrap It All Up
Before we end our discussion, let’s take a look at all the agile team-building activities we mentioned once again
- Ball Point Game
- Battleships
- Emoji Communication Game
- Bubble Point Game
- Paper Airplane Game
- Chocolate Bar Game
- Coin Game
- Marshmallow Tower
- Sandwich Game
- Murder Mystery
You can experiment with one or more of these games at the same time to encourage your team to become more collaborative with each other while training the team members on different agile practices.
FAQ
Yes, frameworks like SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) guide scaling Agile practices for larger teams and organizations.
Strong teams and a collaborative environment often lead to higher job satisfaction and retention.
Agile teams are designed to be adaptable and can pivot quickly to address changing requirements.
Leaders support and empower teams, removing obstacles and providing guidance without micromanaging.
Metrics like team velocity, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement can gauge team effectiveness.
