Continuous Delivery

Continuous Delivery - The Game

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Player Count: 3-5

Play Time: 30-45

Weight: 0

Setting up the game

Components
- 10 dice
- 5 Role cards
- 1 bag for Work Items
- 28 Event cards
- 30 Work Items in 5 colors (6 of each color)
- 20 Time Tokens in 4 colors (5 of each color)
- 15 Improvement cards
- Board
Start by putting the board on the table so that each player can reach all squares.
Select one Role card
- Each player selects one Role card. This can be done randomly or by selecting what you want to play. The roles Development, Test and Operations need always be part of the game, otherwise Improvements cannot be invested in. If playing with four players add either Extra Resource or Continuous Delivery Expert to the game. If playing with five players, add both. It is possible to play with less than three players, in that case give more than one Role card to each player.
- DEVELOPMENT (Red)
  - You are responsible for DEVELOPMENT.
    - You start the game with two red Time Tokens.
- TEST (Yellow)
  - You are responsible for TEST.
    - You start the game with two yellow Time Tokens.
- OPERATIONS (Green)
  - You are responsible for OPERATIONS and that it works IN PRODUCTION.
    - You start the game with two green Time Tokens.
- CONTINUOUS DELIVERY EXPERT (Blue)
  - You are helping the organization with Continuous Delivery improvements.
    - You start the game with two blue Time Tokens.
- EXTRA RESOURCE (Blue)
  - You are an extra resource who is assigned to help with Continuous Delivery improvements.
    - You start the game with two blue Time Tokens.
Time Tokens
- Put all Time Tokens on the table so that everybody can reach them. Each player takes the amount and color stated on their Role card.
Event deck
- Shuffle the Event deck, count the 14 first cards in it, and place them facedown on the designated space on the board. The other 14 cards are returned to the box forever.
Improvement deck and display
- Shuffle the Improvement deck and place it face down on the designated space on the board. Then draw four Improvement cards from the top of the deck and place them face up for all players to see. The displayed four cards are the ones that the players can invest time in.
Work Items
- Put all Work Items into the bag. Without peeking, draw five Work Items and put them on the BACKLOG square. Then draw another five and put them on the Develop square (the first square on the DEVELOPMENT track).
  - Draw two more Work Items and put one on the first square of the Deadline Tracker and the other beside the Income Tracker. These Work Items do not count as in play and are in effect removed from the game. These Work Items will be used to track the deadline and income respectively.

The 14 rounds

The round is divided into six parts
- 1. Invest
- 2. Move
- 3. Event
- 4. Improve
- 5. Income
- 6. Deadline
Invest
- Plan what Improvements to invest time in Each player may put one Time Token on any Improvement card. The Improvements may need specific colors (red, yellow or green) or any color (white circle) to be complete. Investing time in an Improvement does not give you it right away, not until the Improve step.
  - Any player may, instead of investing time, shuffle the visible Improvements into the Improvements deck and draw four new Improvements.
  - The players decide together in what order they act. You may decide that Player A reshuffles the Improvements deck and draws new cards instead of spending time. Then Player B and Player C can choose to either spend Time Tokens on a new Improvement or one of them can decide to reshuffle again.
  - Each Role also has a special power, this is when to use it (instead of investing time).
- DEVELOPMENT (Red)
  - - Special power: Once per round, instead of investing time in Improvements, you can discard a Time Token to move any one Work Item from DEVELOPMENT to any square that holds a Work Item of the same color (you cannot move past Toll Gates).
- TEST (Yellow)
  - - Special power: Once per round, instead of investing time in Improvements, you can discard a Time Token to move all Work Items in a single TEST square one step forward (without having to roll the die).
- OPERATIONS (Green)
  - - Special power: Once per round, instead of investing time in Improvements, you can discard a Time Token to move all Work Items of one color from OPERATIONS to IN PRODUCTION.
- CONTINUOUS DELIVERY EXPERT (Blue)
  - - Special power: Once per round, instead of investing time in Improvements, you can discard a Time Token to move one Work Item five steps (you must still roll for Test and stop at Toll Gates).
- EXTRA RESOURCE (Blue)
  - - Special power: Once per round, instead of investing time in Improvements, you can discard a Time Token to move one Work Item five steps (you must still roll for Test and stop at Toll Gates).
- Improvement cards
  - IaC
    - Protects against all problems in OPERATIONS.
      
      Invest: DEVEL+OPER+3
      
      Time Token: OPERATIONS
  - Requirement refinement
    - Move all Work Items from DEVELOPMENT to Deploy To Test Environment and re- shuffle this card.
      Invest: 3
  - Container
    - Protects against all problems in TEST.
      
      Invest: OPER+DEVEL+3
      
      Time Token: TEST
  - Pull requests
    - Increases probability for test success by 1.
      Invest: DEVEL+2
  - Visualized pipeline
    - Look at the top Event card in the Event deck and then re-shuffle this card.
      Invest: 2
  - Automatic deploy
    - Replace the Deployment square in OPERATIONS.
      
      Invest: 2xOPER+2
      
      Time Token: OPERATIONS
  - Automatic regression test
    - Replace Regression Test in TEST.
      
      Invest: 2xTEST+2
      
      Time Token: TEST
  - Microservices
    - Protects against all architectural problems.
      Invest: 5
  - DevOps introduced
    - Replace the Toll Gate between TEST and OPERATIONS.
      
      Invest: TEST+OPER+3
      
      Time Token: TEST
  - Cross-functional teams
    - Replace Deploy To Test Environment in TEST.
      
      Invest: DEVEL+TEST+2
  - Automatic unit test
    - Replace Unit Test in DEVELOPMENT.
      
      Invest: DEVEL+TEST+1
      
      Time Token: DEVELOPMENT
  - Code review
    - Increases probability for test success by 1.
      
      Invest: DEVEL+2
      
      Time Token: DEVELOPMENT
  - Orchestration
    - Replace Configure Environment.
      
      Invest: DEVEL+OPER+3
      
      Time Token: OPERATIONS
  - Automatic deployment trigger
    - Replace the Toll Gate between OPERATIONS and IN PRODUCTION.
      
      Invest: TEST+OPER+3
      
      Time Token: OPERATIONS
  - Automatic test trigger
    - Replace the Toll Gate between DEVELOPMENT and TEST.
      
      Invest: DEVEL+TEST+3
      
      Time Token: DEVELOPMENT
Move
- Work Items move toward IN PRODUCTION
  - Move Work Items a total of 10 steps, following the rules on the board. You decide together the strategy and which items to move.
  - All special rules are stated on the board and are described in more detail in the Board section.
  - You choose how you divide the moves on the Work Items. For instance; move 10 Work Items 1 step each, 5 Work Items 2 steps each, 1 Work Item 10 steps, or a mix of the above. Rolling a die on a test square counts as one move.
  - If an invested Improvement card states that a square is replaced, all Work Items that are moving to this square should just ignore it and go to the next, non-replaced, square.
Event
- Reality hits you.
  - Draw an Event card and follow the instructions. A good way of doing this is to either take turns to read out the card text, or choose a person not playing to be the reader.
  - The events are sorted into groups below:
- Backlog events
  - These events move work items back to the Backlog, or add new work items to the starting set of 10.
  - Wrong acceptance tests
    - Move half of all Work Items (rounded down) between BACKLOG and IN PRODUCTION to BACKLOG.
  - Does not work in production
    - Move all Work Items in TEST and IN PRODUCTION to BACKLOG.
  - New customer
    - Half of all Work Items (rounded down) in all squares between BACKLOG and IN PRODUCTION are moved to BACKLOG.
  - New requirements
    - Add five random Work Items to BACKLOG.
  - Missing requirements
    - Add two random Work Items to BACKLOG.
  - Didn't think of that!
    - Add one random Work Item to BACKLOG.
  - New hardware
    - Add four random Work Items to BACKLOG.
- Development events
  - These events effect the development part of the board.
  - Unclear requirements
    - Move everything in DEVELOPMENT back one step.
  - No daily
    - Move two Work Items from DEVELOPMENT to BACKLOG.
  - No backlog refinement
    - Move all Work Items in DEVELOPMENT to BACKLOG.
- Test events
  - These events effect the Test part of the board.
  - No acceptance criteria
    - Move all Work Items in TEST to BACKLOG.
  - Framework problems
    - All Work Items in TEST move one step back.
  - Old test cases
    - Move all Work Items in the Unit Test square and half of all Work Items (rounded down) in TEST one step back.
  - Conflict in the test environment
    - All Work Items in TEST are moved to the square just before TEST.
  - Lack of time!
    - Select three Work Items in TEST and move them to DEVELOPMENT.
- ARCHITECTURAL events
  - These events are marked as Architectural. There is an improvement that specifically stops these from happening.
  - Time to build increases
    - Everything in OPERATIONS moves one step back.
      ARCHITECTURAL
  - API upgrade
    - Move all Work Items between BACKLOG and IN PRODUCTION back one step.
      ARCHITECTURAL
  - Database update
    - Add three random Work Items to BACKLOG.
      ARCHITECTURAL
  - The API does not work
    - Move all Work Items in DEVELOPMENT to BACKLOG.
      ARCHITECTURAL
- Time Token events
  - These events effect the time tokens you use for investing time.
  - Flexible testing
    - Place a yellow Time Token on an Improvement of your choice.
  - I want it ASAP!
    - Remove all Time Tokens invested in Improvements. Shuffle the face-up Improvements in the Improvement deck and draw new cards.
  - High performance in operations
    - Place a green Time Token on an Improvement of your choice.
  - Pilot project
    - No player may spend Time Tokens during the next round (not for Improvements nor special powers).
  - Critical bug
    - Remove all Time Tokens invested by Development and Test. Those two may not invest time during the next round.
  - Hero
    - Place a red Time Token on an Improvement of your choice.
  - Re-organization
    - You are not allowed to discuss what Improvements to invest in during the next two rounds.
- General events
  - Nothing happens
    - Everything is going according to plan.
  - Descoping
    - Remove two Work Items of your choice.
Improve
- You can finally get those Improvements in place If an Improvement has been fully invested in (compare the amount and colors of the Time Tokens placed on the card to those printed on the card), play it and draw another from the pile to replace the used one. All spent Time Tokens on that Improvement (red, yellow and green) are given back to the players.
  - If playing with more than three roles, you may also have blue Time Tokens in play. Remember that these are not given back to the players in this way.
  - If an Improvement card states that a square should be replaced, put the Improvement on that square and the square is not in use any more. All Work Items that are moving to this square should just ignore it and go to the next, non-replaced, square. If you replace a square that has Work Items on it, move all Work Items to the next square (toward IN PRODUCTION) before putting the Improvement card on the square.
  - The different players get tokens back, or get new tokens, according to the following.
- DEVELOPMENT Red player
  - - Every time a DEVELOPMENT Improvement is played, you get an additional red Time Token.
- TEST Yellow player
  - - Every time a TEST Improvement is played, you get an additional yellow Time Token.
- OPERATIONS Green player
  - - Every time an OPERATIONS Improvement is played, you get an additional green Time Token.
- CONTINUOUS DELIVERY EXPERT Blue player
  - - You do NOT get the invested Time Tokens back when the Improvement is finished.
    - Every time an Improvement is played, you get an additional blue Time Token.
- EXTRA RESOURCE Blue player
  - - You do NOT get the invested Time Tokens back when the Improvement is finished.
    - Every time an Improvement is played, you get an additional blue Time Token.
Income
- You get paid for your hard work. If you have full features IN PRODUCTION (all Work Items of one color), you gain one income for each full feature. Move the marker on the Income Tracker one step for each income you gain.
  - It could be the case that a full feature IN PRODUCTION stops giving you income. For instance, if there are two green Work Items in play and both are IN PRODUCTION this gives you 1 income each round. But if you then draw an Event that adds a new green Work Item, the feature is no longer fully IN PRODUCTION and you stop gaining income. You do not lose any income, you just stop getting more.
Deadline
- The end of the project gets closer. Move the marker on the Deadline Tracker one step and continue with the next round.
  - The game may end now.

The game end

When the Deadline marker moves to the last square, after 14 completed rounds, the game is over. At this point, count how much income you have gathered and compare it to the income chart.