Virtual World is a simulation designed to allow students to experience Scrum in a virtual class. Virtual World improves the learning experience by simulating product delivery using Scrum. This simulation is the perfect aid to allow students practice all of the elements of iterative product development including Scrum and Supporting Practices and Concepts like Vision, Roadmap, Release Plan, User Story Mapping, Minimum Viable Product.
The players simulate working in Scrum teams by creating a Virtual City, Farm, Zoo or Island in the Virtual World.
Class participants are split into teams and each person is assigned a Scrum role: Development Team Member, Scrum Master, Product Owner. The students work in virtual breakout rooms. I used Zoom and Mural which work well on Chrome (not Safari). These tools allow for students to collaboratively create artifacts and the final product.
The goal for each team is to collaboratively create the greatest ever zoo, city, island or tourism farm using a virtual canvas and the values and practices of the Scrum framework. The product delivery is split into two sprints. Within each sprint, the players practice the Scrum events: sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review and retrospective.
The final product is a virtual space that users can peruse in times of longing and social distancing.
I often start by teaching the 5 Levels of Planning and taking students on the journey from Vision to Daily Scrum.
- Vision
After introducing Vision as a concept (why, what, how), students are put into breakout rooms (Zoom) and a virtual canvas (Mural) to collaboratively create a Product Vision board and an Elevator Pitch Vision Statement for their chosen virtual space. Happy Farm is the Virtual Farm I’ve created as an example.
Product Roadmap
In the next step, after discussing the purpose and elements of a Product Roadmap, students are invited into breakout rooms (Zoom) and a virtual canvas (Mural) to collaboratively create a Product Roadmap for their virtual space.
Primary User
At this point, students are ready to start a light User Story Mapping that will help them seed their Product Backlog. First, we have a simple activity to allow them to identify users and determine their most important user. Collaboratively they brainstorm potential users, and place user types on the bullseye according to the level of importance.
User Journey
In the next step, students are invited to envision the user journey and brainstorm user steps in that journey. They are asked to write down one user journey step per post-it in the format of a user story. This is done in two rounds: round one is collaboratively and round two is in silence.
Students build their virtual farm, zoo, city or island in a virtual canvas.
