Instructions

Introduction

Changeban is a Lean Startup-flavoured Kanban simulation game.

It was created by Mike Burrows, the founder of Agendashift, as an in-person workshop game. To understand the objectives and outcomes of playing the game have a look at the Changeban page, on the Agendashift site.

Normally the game is played twice, once with WIP limits and once without. Results are compared and discussed.

Starting and Joining a Game

The first player creates a game with the "New Game" button, supplying their initials.

After starting a six character game name is displayed in the bottom left corner. Pass this on to the other players for them to join.

Each game can hold a maximum of 5 players and you cannot join after it has begun. If you try to join a full, or running game you will be given the opportunity to watch it play."

Playing a Game

In this online version you will see what type of day you have and what you can do. The game will not allow you to make an invalid move. Simply look at the bold tickets and pick one. Clicking on it will make the move.

When played in person randomness is introduced for play by each player drawing a card, which could be red or black. Here the game will deal your colour for you.

For a RED Card

EITHER advance one of your unblocked items one column rightwards

OR unblock one of your blocked items by crossing out its ‘B’ mark

OR start a new item if any remain - move it to the first in-progress column

If and only if you can’t make one of these moves for yourself, help someone! Advance or unblock another player’s item Whenever you accept an item, reject another, chosen by the whole team

For a BLACK Card

After your daily standup meeting:

BOTH block one of your currently unblocked items if you have any

AND start a new item if any remain – even if you had nothing to block

If and only if you can’t start a new item, help someone! Advance or unblock another player’s item.

Rejecting Items

Whether you are playing a red or black day whenever you accept an item, reject another, chosen by the whole team

Scoring

Changeban simulates the idea that many of our ideas will be rejected as we find out about them. There are two colours of items representing different kinds of work. To maimise the team's score There should be a balance of completeion and rejection and a balance of types of work.

1 point for each Accepted item, up to a maximum of 4 per colour – 8 points available

1 point for each colour represented in each subcolumn of Rejected – 8 points available

A bonus point for each subcolumn of Rejected that contains exactly 2 items, 1 of each colour – 4 points available

The maximum score is 20

Playing Multiple Games

You cannot restart a game but you can play as many times as you like, simply start a new game.

Limiting WIP

The game can be played without WIP limits, with a limit for each column or a aggregated limit across all the in-progress columns. Simple check the appropriate box when creating a game.

After you have started a game the six character game name is displayed in the bottom left corner. Pass this on to the players for them to join.