Q: Is the total number of Development Team members limited by the number of dice in the game box?

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1 FAQ (1.0) Q: Can a single player play multiple team roles? A: While in principle it s possible, in reality it s distracting. Particularly the Product Owner is expected to constantly react to the game events by reordering the backlog. Also keeping track of the cashflow takes time. Q: Is the total number of Development Team members limited by the number of dice in the game box? A: Yes. Unless stated otherwise in the given scenario, you can t have more than 9 Juniors, 6 Developers and 3 Seniors on the Development Team. Q: Can I change the initial composition of the team? A: No, but you can start hiring and laying off people right from the 1st Sprint by playing Product Owner s Hire/Fire Action. Newly hired team members always start from the next Sprint. Q: Can I let the Scrum Master go? A: Sure. The only role that needs to stay on the team is the Product Owner. Oh, and unless you re done with all the work, you need also at least one developer. Q: Can I pass rolling a dice? A: Yes, you can pass on rolling Development Team dice by playing Damage Control Development Team Action. Play this card at the Sprinting and point out developers who shouldn t roll their dice this Sprint. Q: I ve got some spare Effort Points at the Review. Can I pull an additional item from the Product Backlog to have it refined or done in whole or in part at least? A: No. What looks unrealistic at first is really a simplified way to show things can take more time than expected. To compensate for the lack of realism, we let you choose which items get done in case you won t have enough Effort Points. Equally unrealistic, yet convenient Q: I don t have enough Effort Points at the Review to complete a Sprint Backlog Item. Can I have this item done partially?

2 A: No. We don t account for partially done work in Scrum. Undone items need to be returned to Product Backlog and worked on again in full. Q: I don t have enough Effort Points at the Review to both refine and complete all Sprint Backlog Items as planned. Can I skip some of the Refinement and use these Effort Points to complete the items? A: No. Refinement must be paid first at full. The process of Refinement takes place during the whole Sprint, so once planned, it can't be undone. Q: I don t have Effort Points at the Review to even refine all the items that I have planned to refine. A: Refine and flip over as many as you can. Return the rest of them to the Product Backlog. Return all undone Sprint Backlog Items to the Product Backlog as well. Q: Can we decide to postpone team salaries to temporarily lower Sprint cost? A: No. The only way to lower Sprint cost is to let some team members go. See Hiring and Firing section for details. Q: What happens if I run out of money? A: Well, you declare bankruptcy. Learn from your mistakes and start over. Q: When can I play Product Owner s Loan Action? A: You can take a loan as soon as you have your first color or shape released. For each released color and shape you can get up to 1000 CR. The Loan Action can be played at Sprinting or Review. Once eligible, you get credits from the Bank immediately after playing the card, so a loan taken at Sprinting right after an unfortunate Event can save you from bankruptcy. Q: An Event made us withdraw the only color/shape we ve released. Can we still take a loan? A: Yes. Your credibility goes up with each color or shape released. The Bank doesn t need to know it is temporarily removed, right?

3 Q: Can I withdraw a color or shape from production, i.e. unrelease it? A: No you can t. Once it s out there you have to deal with the consequences. Q: What do I do if an Event requires me to undo a released color or shape? A: First you need to return all the appropriate Product Backlog Items to the Product Backlog. They would need to be worked on again in full. Refined items stay refined, there is no need to flip them back and refine again. Second, in case it was your only color or shape released (i.e. there are no other colors or shapes released) put Pre-Release Events back on the board. Q: An Event requires us to randomly remove (or prevent from dice rolling) one or more team members. Should we also consider the temporary ones? A: Yes. Randomly select one team member including temporary ones such as an Intern. Q: There aren t any Technical Debt / Special Event cards left. What should we do? A: You must be the lucky ones. Unbelievable you didn t get busted yet. Shuffle the previously used cards and place them back on the game board. Q: What if an Event references to a shape or a color I don t have in the given scenario product topology? A: Put that Event aside and draw the next one. Q: What should we do if an Event we drew refers to a shape or a color excluded for our scenario? A: Put that Event aside and draw the next one. Q: What should we do if the team s Flow is low and significantly slowing us down? A: Admit it. You were curious to see the negative Special Events, weren t you? Well... Focus on Actions and Improvements which improve the Flow. Try to lower the amount of work planned each Sprint to ensure the Sprint Backlog gets done at whole. If possible, lower the number of Technical Debt cards drawn each Sprint. And hire back this poor Scrum Master as his presence on the team adds one to the Flow each Sprint. Good luck.

4 Q: What should we do if our Product Owner suffers from high stress levels? A: Focus on Actions that relieve stress (the Product Owner has one and the Scrum Master has one too). Don t make things worse. Avoid Technical Debt and team size penalties. Complete all Sprint Backlog Items each Sprint. Q: What should we do if we have a lot of defect fixes on our Product Backlog? We were just hit hard by an Event that referred to the number of them on the backlog. A: Why on earth would one accumulate defects on the Product Backlog? Fix them as soon as you get them. Be systematic about it. Don t ever wait for one special Sprint at the end to clean them all at once. Look for Improvements and Actions that help you remove defects for free. Fix the leaking. Prevent new defects from stacking up by limiting the number of Technical Debt cards drawn each Sprint. Q: What should we do if the number of Technical Debts cards drawn each Sprint is really high? A: It happens to all of us. We let things slip for a while and then it s really difficult to get back on track. More seniory on the team means less Technical Debt. Certain Improvements and Actions lower the number even further. Focus on refining Product Backlog Items with more than one defect on them as there is a good chance there will be less of them on the flip side. Q: Can we add more Product Backlog Items to the Sprint Backlog in case of a positive event occurrence by using Less/More Work Action? A: Yes, sometimes you need to make most of a positive things going around you to get an edge over your competition. So don t hesitate and use whatever advantage you can. Q: Do I have to release a done color or shape to start earning money? A: Yes. Only releasing a functionality to the market allows you to earn credits in this game. See the scenario for the exact amounts. Q: Can I change the initial composition of the team? A: No, but you can start hiring and laying off people right from the 1st Sprint by playing Product Owner s Hire/Fire Action. Remember to account for this change in

5 the next Sprint cost. Regardless of whether you played the action card at Sprinting or Review newly hired developers start working from the next Sprint. Q: What can I do if I ran out on Developers or Senior Developers dice and still want to play Mentoring Action? A: Use another dice, but remember the Developer and Senior Developer dice have unusual numbering. Q: What to do if I m low on money? A: Release more colors and shapes. Releases are your primary source of income (depending on the scenario though). To satisfy immediate need for money (e.g. if an unfortunate Event hit you at Sprinting) consider taking a loan by playing Product Owner s Loan Action.

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