corporate serious games are changing the rules of product development

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Corporate Serious Games Are Changing The Rules Of Product Development

Tom Grant, Ph. D.Senior Analyst, Forrester Research

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Agenda

When software companies can’t innovate

Serious games and software development

Getting started with serious games

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Agenda

When software companies can’t innovate

Serious games and software development

Getting started with serious games

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What software development can tell us about product development

Software development is innovation with most of the pesky physical laws removed.

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Dad, why do people hate your

software?

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Complexity is one big problem

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Some hot topics in software development

Agile Iterative, adaptive development

Lean Pull model, emphasis on flow

Requirements Improve the lexicon of development

User experience (UX) Connecting code to humans

DevOps Code developed is not code deployed

Technical debt Sloppy code accumulates, slows innovation

Social media Conversations go both ways

Cloud More direct relationship, utility model

All of these reflect, in different ways, the problems dealing with complexity.

Embedded software Creating hybrid hardware/software products

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Software companies don’t handle complexity well

The Chevrolet Volt

Brand new automobile technologyMillions of lines of code

Time to develop: 3 years

Oracle Database

Mature technologyMillions of lines of code

Time between versions 8 and 9: 4 years

Windows OS

Mature technologyMillions of lines of code

Time between XP and Vista: 5 years

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None of the above

Other

Introduction of cross-functional teams

Separation of application development from maintenance and support

More training and support

Leveraging external resources more effectively

Improved integration between software development tools

Better defined responsibilities between functions

Improvement of project/program management practices

Improved collaboration tools

Better understanding of the entire work portfolio

Introduction of Agile processes

Improvement of development practices

Improvement of quality assurance practices

Better measurement and reporting

Better relationship between IT and the business

Improvement of requirements practices

1.9%

4.8%

22.9%

23.8%

24.8%

25.7%

29.5%

31.4%

34.3%

34.3%

35.2%

41.0%

41.0%

41.9%

44.8%

46.7%

65.7%

Which of the following would improve your application development and support organization? (Select all that apply)

Base: 105 professionals directly involved with the development or support of software applications

Source: Q1 2011 Global Application Development & Delivery Organization Structure Online Survey

Complexity divides technology producers & consumers

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To get out of this jungle of complexity, you’ll need more than just a bigger machete or a larger expedition.

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Lack of customer insight is another problem

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Ever pay $100K for something you didn’t use?

•32% succeeded.•44% were challenged.•24% failed.Standish Group

CHAOS Summary 2009 report

•Iterative: 71% succeeded.•Agile: 70% succeeded.•Traditional: 66% succeeded.•Ad hoc: 62% succeeded.

Dr. Dobb’s Project Success Survey

•Nearly one-half of the respondents experienced a project failure the year before.

•86% reported losses of as much as 25% of targeted benefits across the portfolio.KPMG Global IT

Project Management Survey 2005

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Developers build software for people unlike them

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We don’t question our assumptions about customers

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“Team dynamics” are the third problem

OVERBEARINGPERSONALITIES

Compartmentalization

Poor morale

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TIME TOCHANGE

THERULES

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What sort of serious games?

Structured, game-like activities with collective outcomes

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Different needs, different games

Source: April 29, 2011, “App Dev Teams: Consider Playing Around With Serious Games” Forrester report

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Teams often use serious gaming regularly for:

Ideation

Requirements collection

Requirements validation

Rapid decision-making

Strategic-level decisions (portfolio, road map, etc.)

Retrospection

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Where serious games figure into development

CONCEIVE TEST BUILD DELIVER ADOPT ASSESS

Generate new insights into what customers really value

Change team dynamics and challenge operating

assumptions

Reduce complexity throughout the innovation process

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EXAMPLE: Product box

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EXAMPLE: Buy a feature

Android app for activity management

Custom pipeline stages

More complex lead-scoring options

More canned reports

Define and manage teams

Easy clean-up of bad or duplicate data

Activity entry via email

Associate teams with prospects

$5,000

$2,000

$3,500

$1,500

$4,750

$2,500

$3,250

$1,250

FEATURE COST-

$500

-

$300

$2,000

$2,500

-

-

SPENT

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EXAMPLE: Prune the product tree

SALES REP

SALES MGR Report API

TeamsPipeline

mgt Opportunitystates

Emailactivity

Mobilesupport

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Serious games are useful in many contexts

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Agenda

When software companies can’t innovate

Serious games and software development

Getting started with serious games

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Why do serious games work?

Structured– Rules, but often no winners

Purposeful– Definite outcome

Time-bound– By definition, a time-boxed

exercise

Participatory– Success depends on everyone

participating.

Egalitarian– Everyone has an equal

opportunity to participate.

All of which can simplify decision-making and generate new insights.

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Why do serious games work?

Our brains are wired for intrinsic motivation.

IF figure out puzzle THEN release pleasure- creating chemicals

(opioids)

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Reducing complexity

OUR PRODUCT

Now with

more stuff!

Rewriting a decade-old system from scratch

Needed to economize on features included in the first version

Used a Product Box game to ask stakeholders what was most important

Some surprises in the results

Communicated the results throughout the company

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Improving customer insights

Looking for fresh ideas for support projects– Have to overcome geographic and organizational

boundaries to find them

Ran “Buy A Feature” online – Allowed broad participation

– Recorded conversations

– Had high engagement, including after work

– Gave workers outside HQ a sense of real participation

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Challenging team dynamics

At end of sprint (development cycle), use a serious game to ask what they could do differently the next time

– EX: Prune the product tree

Off-cycle, use serious games to generate ideas– Collaborate with Bangalore team

Why do serious games work?– “Ask powerful questions”

– Collaborate over distances

– Collaborate across group boundaries

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Agenda

When software companies can’t innovate

Serious games and software development

Getting started with serious games

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Your next move with serious games

START WITH THE IMMEDIATE– Pick the game that addresses your issue.

– Prepare, prepare, prepare.

– Make sure you have enough resources for the exercise.

– Record the exercise.

– Socialize the results.

– Plan for the next game.

THEN MAKE SERIOUS GAMES AN ONGOING ACTIVITY

– Requirements

– Planning

– Retrospection

– Ad hoc decision-making

Rules that apply to any context, not just software development.

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Be very specific about the problem you’re addressing

ComplexityCustomer insight

Team dynamics

Pick one. Just one.

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Pick the right game

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Build serious game into regular processes

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Thank you

Tom Grant+1.650.581.3846tgrant@forrester.comhttp://blogs.forrester.com/tom_grant@TomGrantForr

www.forrester.com