Connection - What do you know about agile?

It is good to start asking participants what they think agile is and what is not.

Write everything they say in two columns ("Agile is," "Agile is not") without questioning or arguing any response. This is to capture what they "think" agile is.

Concept – Clean up answers.

After adding all entries, ask if any entry should be removed or if someone disagrees, discuss with the group, and strikethrough the incorrect ones.

Concrete Practice - Agile Values Puzzle game

No Manifesto yet: Do not mention the agile manifesto, values, or principles.
Groups: Tell the attendees to split into 2 to 4 groups of about 2 to 6 persons. Do not say how. Just let them self-organize.
Agile Values:

Provide a set of the Agile value cards to each group
Directions:

Four pairs of concepts: Tell the participants to organize the cards into 4 pairs, where each pair should be two concepts that are contradictory on their own but complementary at the same time when they are together.
More value: For each pair of concepts, tell the participants to select the concept they think is more important in a scenario where you could pick only one. Put the most valuable concept on the left.
If a group is confused at any step, do not give answers; tell them to consult with another group. Clarify the directions of the exercise if needed.

Values Wall: Tell each group to

Pick one pair, stand up, and show the cards to the other groups. They must pick a pair that no other group has picked.
Explain to the other groups their selection and decision.
If other groups disagree or the selection is not aligned to the agile manifesto, facilitate discussion until they agree.
If the other groups agree with their selection, they can put the cards on a wall with tape. The concept with the most value should be on the left.
Repeat until 4 different unique pairs of concepts are on the wall aligned with the agile manifesto values page http://agilemanifesto.org/ . It should look like on the photo.

Agile Manifesto: Explain that what they have built intuitively is the Agile Manifesto, and these are the four values "That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more." who are the signers, history and whatever else you want.

Dot voting – Most important / most difficult: You can also ask for dot voting on which value is the most important value and which one is the most difficult and discuss why.

Agile Principles: Provide 6 to 12 agile principle cards to each group and tell them they are the twelve principles of the agile manifesto.

Principles mapping to values: Tell each group to

Discuss all the principles for 4 minutes and decide which of the values each matches better.
Stand up with one principle, read it to all groups, say to which value they map it, and put it in the row aligned to that value (this is subjective, there is no official mapping of principles to any value, it is just a memory and discussion game).
Ask to other groups if they would like to add anything.
Repeat until all the 12 principles are on the wall with the values. It should look something like this:

Conclusion

Ask all participants what conclusions they can make about the agile values, principles, and daily work. Then, relate to their first thoughts about what agile is and is not.

Notes

The game is very simple and lets the people find the agile values intuitively and with common sense. The idea is that they decide and agree on what is more important by themselves instead of someone imposing the concepts. In my experience, people match the values with minimal or no assistance at all.

Try this game at work, in class, or training! Comments or questions are welcome :)

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