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The Dream Team Nightmare
Can you solve The Dream Team Nightmare?
Today is your first day at Love Inc. You've just been introduced to your new team as their Agile Coach. The team calls themselves The Dream Team. You are responsible for coming up with a plan to get the team back on track to achieve their project goals.
Shortly after the initial product launch, The Dream Team was set a challenge by the Management Team to try out an alternative way of working called Agile. Eighteen months on and the team is working anything but like a dream. In fact, life's become a bit of a nightmare. Morale is low. Productivity has ground to a halt. Quality has become a taboo subject.
Management believes the project has reached an impasse. They demand results and are prepared to outsource the remainder of the project. You have 5 days to figure out how to help the team move forward.
Your fate and that of your team is entirely in your hands. What choices will you make? Choose badly and you’ll come to a sticky end. Choose wisely and you and your team stand a chance of living happily ever after. What will you choose to do?
Today is your first day at Love Inc. You've just been introduced to your new team as their Agile Coach. The team calls themselves The Dream Team. You are responsible for coming up with a plan to get the team back on track to achieve their project goals.
Shortly after the initial product launch, The Dream Team was set a challenge by the Management Team to try out an alternative way of working called Agile. Eighteen months on and the team is working anything but like a dream. In fact, life's become a bit of a nightmare. Morale is low. Productivity has ground to a halt. Quality has become a taboo subject.
Management believes the project has reached an impasse. They demand results and are prepared to outsource the remainder of the project. You have 5 days to figure out how to help the team move forward.
Your fate and that of your team is entirely in your hands. What choices will you make? Choose badly and you’ll come to a sticky end. Choose wisely and you and your team stand a chance of living happily ever after. What will you choose to do?
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First published June 6, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
December 10, 2013
Portia's Adventure places itself among the most compelling and intriguing "business novels" that I have read so far. The message is so well wrought into the narrative flow that you barely notice you are learning a lot. And you do:
The style of making assumptions, validating them to keep track of what you learn and plan to do is that of an effective change artist. Ivana Gancheva calls this "Validated Influencing".
To explicitly identify options, defer decisions to keep options open, not only makes reading this gamebook very exciting, it is also part of the method you see applied.
I highly recommend this book to agile readers of all experience levels. You will learn. Let Portia entertain you!
This is what impressed me most: I've read similar books (The Goal, Power of Scrum, ...) and they all have some "trick" to bring in "background information". Portia just tells her story in a way that the basic information comes up naturally. If I want to know more, the keywords allow me to google and explore. No raw "theory" stuffed in my face. I like that.
The tools Portia introduces are pragmatic and practical, with little explanation. The reader learns from the story and from people's "reaction". The bell, the perfection game style of the daily log, the user story with acceptance criteria for your "mission", the kanban board for meetings...
The explanation of kanban vs Kanban was the first (out of probably more than a dozen I heard/read before) I actually understood. Easier to see the distinction without religious dogma in it, I guess :-)
My favourite: the real options/uncertainty/defer decisions parts!
Well done.
The style of making assumptions, validating them to keep track of what you learn and plan to do is that of an effective change artist. Ivana Gancheva calls this "Validated Influencing".
To explicitly identify options, defer decisions to keep options open, not only makes reading this gamebook very exciting, it is also part of the method you see applied.
I highly recommend this book to agile readers of all experience levels. You will learn. Let Portia entertain you!
This is what impressed me most: I've read similar books (The Goal, Power of Scrum, ...) and they all have some "trick" to bring in "background information". Portia just tells her story in a way that the basic information comes up naturally. If I want to know more, the keywords allow me to google and explore. No raw "theory" stuffed in my face. I like that.
The tools Portia introduces are pragmatic and practical, with little explanation. The reader learns from the story and from people's "reaction". The bell, the perfection game style of the daily log, the user story with acceptance criteria for your "mission", the kanban board for meetings...
The explanation of kanban vs Kanban was the first (out of probably more than a dozen I heard/read before) I actually understood. Easier to see the distinction without religious dogma in it, I guess :-)
My favourite: the real options/uncertainty/defer decisions parts!
Well done.
December 11, 2016
Great book! Just completed my "first run" ... This book is fun to read and very helpful by giving a lot of inspiration and guidance. Thank you so much :)
August 10, 2015
People learn best from stories. This book is a good story, packed with a lot of advice for agile teams, managers and coaches.
August 24, 2017
This was really a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, there were some interesting ideas, and I did find the narrative structure to be more engaging than a straight non-fiction treatment might have been.
But on the other hand, there were things about it that were maddeningly bad. For one, the dialog is the achingly horrible kind common to the saccharine business/self-help books ("Who Moved My Cheese" et al). Also, when the most common "choice" is "to continue the adventure, turn the page", claiming this is "choose your own adventure" style is more or less a complete sham. And even when you do make choices, many of them don't affect the outcome, they just add (or subtract) some extra color or dialog and then you return to the same track. Which, while frustrating, I have to admit was probably more effective. That is, I think I'd find a non-fiction book written in a true choose-your-own-path book, with a lot of branches and many possible endings, would be bad. When I read non-fiction, I want all the information, not parts here and there, and a nagging feeling that I'd missed something.
So the narrative format was good, but the choose-your-own-path part was bad. I think a better approach might be something like two (or more) parallel narratives, or maybe sidebars to a single story.
But on the other hand, there were things about it that were maddeningly bad. For one, the dialog is the achingly horrible kind common to the saccharine business/self-help books ("Who Moved My Cheese" et al). Also, when the most common "choice" is "to continue the adventure, turn the page", claiming this is "choose your own adventure" style is more or less a complete sham. And even when you do make choices, many of them don't affect the outcome, they just add (or subtract) some extra color or dialog and then you return to the same track. Which, while frustrating, I have to admit was probably more effective. That is, I think I'd find a non-fiction book written in a true choose-your-own-path book, with a lot of branches and many possible endings, would be bad. When I read non-fiction, I want all the information, not parts here and there, and a nagging feeling that I'd missed something.
So the narrative format was good, but the choose-your-own-path part was bad. I think a better approach might be something like two (or more) parallel narratives, or maybe sidebars to a single story.
January 27, 2018
The book started off really well and was very interesting at the beginning but it slowly got boring to the point of making me want to skim the paragraphs just to get to the next page. Learned a few things which I hope I can implement in my projects. The best part about the book was the interesting style of narration, making you navigate from one end of the book to the other depending on which option you choose after completing a story - found it very engaging that way.
The book apparently has 8 ending with 7 of them being failure endings and the 8th being the successful one. I only made it to 2 - the first was a failed ending (lol) but I got pretty far in the book before I reached this ending and the second was the successful one! (wohoo - guess I understand the agile way of working now?)
The book apparently has 8 ending with 7 of them being failure endings and the 8th being the successful one. I only made it to 2 - the first was a failed ending (lol) but I got pretty far in the book before I reached this ending and the second was the successful one! (wohoo - guess I understand the agile way of working now?)
November 30, 2021
Interested in getting your feet wet in the world of Agile project management?
So was I. My office is dabbling in an Agile migration. We have been a classic waterfall development process since dirt was invented. New blood however brings new process. As my teammates began getting excited, discussion increased and I quickly found myself lost in the mixture of paradigms and language. The last time I used the word Epic was in relation to video game companies. Waterfall? I know you should never chase them and you should stick to the rivers and streams that you are used to. Scrum and Scrummaster? Lets not go down that path. None of this helped me. I felt like an noob, and rightly so, because I was exactly that. Pride kicked me into gear.
I took to the web and found a myriad of resources. Who would have guessed that agile is this thing that helps you be quick and flexible (the least helpful website)... The resources presented were countless, the level of approach-ability in most cases was lacking. There were always assumptions that you had SOME experience, this left me always 20 steps behind or with out a frame of reference to show WHY certain concepts were important.
What I ultimately stumbled upon was a gimmick that lends itself to a sane and readable primer in the topic.
Don't stop reading yet... The title of this book was misleading in it's verbosity and almost frightened me away.
The Dream Team Nightmare: Boost Team Productivity Using Agile Techniques
What made this accessible? The gimmick is Choose your own adventure. What you say? Yes I say, Choose your own adventure Agile style (big A).
Tung's primer is 300 pages of learning gold. You are dropped into an office environment as an Agile expert, focused on getting a team back in motion and on track for efficient releases. You can succeed, you can fail, you can succeed by the skin of your teeth and come away with scrapes and some learned lessons.
Through the book you primarily make decisions based in interactions with others on the team. Most concepts are repeated via internal dialogue or written open discussion on the team. This made it easy to adopt the thought processes. Often I found myself mentally reviewing my own office to see where these process elements could be enacted now.
The actual choose your own adventure metaphor breaks down eventually, but by then it has served it's purpose. At one point, in the thick of an important task, the page turns kept me going for over 16 pages in a row. Did it matter? No. It worked well and the fact I was embedded was proof that this was no longer needed.
Suggested approach is definitely to read through once and succeed or fail. After, give it a second read and really consume the details. If you read CYOA books like I do, a third read is probably unneeded, as this book lends it's self well to turning back the clock on decisions and seeing how the alt path shakes out. There are several choices which will lead to the same result, only your internal dialogue and sense of satisfaction changes.
Interestingly, I would harbor a guess that the novel itself was written using Agile techniques. Most adventure decisions are short, concise, and specific. Each section has topic headers, and you can actually envision the entire novel on sticky notes, lining a wall. Planning, creation, editing/qa, critique and feedback; every action on a KanBan board being tracked for process.
As a primer, this was by far one of the most successful and engaging presentation I have dealt with. Deeper topics can be found in other works pretty easily now that I have a strong basis for concepts to build off of.
ReBlurb:
Not needed, though I believe the title should be changed. Seeing the spine of this book on a shelf leads a viewer to believe that this is more complex than it is. It is definitely descriptive, but does itself a disservice by making it appear seemingly inaccessible to the same noobs it caters to (folks like me).
Publisher Description:
This first-ever interactive Agile Adventure is the gripping tale of an experienced team struggling with agile adoption. In this unique mashup of a business novel written in the gamebook format, you'll overcome common yet daunting challenges that come from using agile methods. As Jim, the agile coach, you'll learn to apply a range of thinking tools and techniques to real-life problems faced by teams and organizations. Find out what really works and what fails miserably from the consequences of your choices. And, unlike in the real world, if at first you don't succeed, you can make different choices until you get things right.
Management is ready to disband your new agile team and outsource your project. Can you save The Dream Team?
The Dream Team started their journey 18 months ago. Since then, life has become a nightmare. Progress has ground to a halt. Morale is low. Quality has become taboo. You have five days to figure out how to get the team back on track. There will be conflict and maybe tears. One thing is for sure: there will be plenty of tough decisions to make.
Inspired by a classic gamebook series, this fun and interactive story has eight different endings designed to enrich and put your agile development knowledge and experience to the test. Packed with familiar scenarios an agile team faces every day, The Dream Team Nightmare offers you the chance to see what would happen if you could do things differently so you can change the way you do things for real with confidence.
Combining practical team-building exercises with effective facilitation and Systems Thinking, by the end of the book you'll be ready to rescue projects in trouble, and get new projects off to a better start.
https://toasttoasted.blogspot.com/201...
So was I. My office is dabbling in an Agile migration. We have been a classic waterfall development process since dirt was invented. New blood however brings new process. As my teammates began getting excited, discussion increased and I quickly found myself lost in the mixture of paradigms and language. The last time I used the word Epic was in relation to video game companies. Waterfall? I know you should never chase them and you should stick to the rivers and streams that you are used to. Scrum and Scrummaster? Lets not go down that path. None of this helped me. I felt like an noob, and rightly so, because I was exactly that. Pride kicked me into gear.
I took to the web and found a myriad of resources. Who would have guessed that agile is this thing that helps you be quick and flexible (the least helpful website)... The resources presented were countless, the level of approach-ability in most cases was lacking. There were always assumptions that you had SOME experience, this left me always 20 steps behind or with out a frame of reference to show WHY certain concepts were important.
What I ultimately stumbled upon was a gimmick that lends itself to a sane and readable primer in the topic.
Don't stop reading yet... The title of this book was misleading in it's verbosity and almost frightened me away.
The Dream Team Nightmare: Boost Team Productivity Using Agile Techniques
What made this accessible? The gimmick is Choose your own adventure. What you say? Yes I say, Choose your own adventure Agile style (big A).
Tung's primer is 300 pages of learning gold. You are dropped into an office environment as an Agile expert, focused on getting a team back in motion and on track for efficient releases. You can succeed, you can fail, you can succeed by the skin of your teeth and come away with scrapes and some learned lessons.
Through the book you primarily make decisions based in interactions with others on the team. Most concepts are repeated via internal dialogue or written open discussion on the team. This made it easy to adopt the thought processes. Often I found myself mentally reviewing my own office to see where these process elements could be enacted now.
The actual choose your own adventure metaphor breaks down eventually, but by then it has served it's purpose. At one point, in the thick of an important task, the page turns kept me going for over 16 pages in a row. Did it matter? No. It worked well and the fact I was embedded was proof that this was no longer needed.
Suggested approach is definitely to read through once and succeed or fail. After, give it a second read and really consume the details. If you read CYOA books like I do, a third read is probably unneeded, as this book lends it's self well to turning back the clock on decisions and seeing how the alt path shakes out. There are several choices which will lead to the same result, only your internal dialogue and sense of satisfaction changes.
Interestingly, I would harbor a guess that the novel itself was written using Agile techniques. Most adventure decisions are short, concise, and specific. Each section has topic headers, and you can actually envision the entire novel on sticky notes, lining a wall. Planning, creation, editing/qa, critique and feedback; every action on a KanBan board being tracked for process.
As a primer, this was by far one of the most successful and engaging presentation I have dealt with. Deeper topics can be found in other works pretty easily now that I have a strong basis for concepts to build off of.
ReBlurb:
Not needed, though I believe the title should be changed. Seeing the spine of this book on a shelf leads a viewer to believe that this is more complex than it is. It is definitely descriptive, but does itself a disservice by making it appear seemingly inaccessible to the same noobs it caters to (folks like me).
Publisher Description:
This first-ever interactive Agile Adventure is the gripping tale of an experienced team struggling with agile adoption. In this unique mashup of a business novel written in the gamebook format, you'll overcome common yet daunting challenges that come from using agile methods. As Jim, the agile coach, you'll learn to apply a range of thinking tools and techniques to real-life problems faced by teams and organizations. Find out what really works and what fails miserably from the consequences of your choices. And, unlike in the real world, if at first you don't succeed, you can make different choices until you get things right.
Management is ready to disband your new agile team and outsource your project. Can you save The Dream Team?
The Dream Team started their journey 18 months ago. Since then, life has become a nightmare. Progress has ground to a halt. Morale is low. Quality has become taboo. You have five days to figure out how to get the team back on track. There will be conflict and maybe tears. One thing is for sure: there will be plenty of tough decisions to make.
Inspired by a classic gamebook series, this fun and interactive story has eight different endings designed to enrich and put your agile development knowledge and experience to the test. Packed with familiar scenarios an agile team faces every day, The Dream Team Nightmare offers you the chance to see what would happen if you could do things differently so you can change the way you do things for real with confidence.
Combining practical team-building exercises with effective facilitation and Systems Thinking, by the end of the book you'll be ready to rescue projects in trouble, and get new projects off to a better start.
https://toasttoasted.blogspot.com/201...
July 6, 2017
The book tells the story of an agile coach (you) as decided by you. Depending on the choice you make at the end of each section/chapter, you are directed to the next section/chapter. While I was interested in knowing the outcomes based on different choices, there is no easy way to get a glimpse of all the choices and corresponding outcomes and compare them.
Not my cup of tea.
Not my cup of tea.
July 23, 2018
The idea of a "Choose your own adventure" book based on Agile is exciting and there are a few extra learnings from the reading: an ice breaker, a way to log your activity as a coach, explanations on retrospectives, facilitation, real options or current reality tree.
Seeing an external consultant in action with some stereotyped participants was a good experience.
Seeing an external consultant in action with some stereotyped participants was a good experience.
December 29, 2016
Recomendable, pero sólo para gente que use o sufra Scrum en su día a día.
Se lee muy rápido, y el formato "elige tu propia aventura" encaja perfectamente en un libro con vocación más didáctica que narrativa. Lástima que pasado cierto nivel el camino "correcto" resulte evidente.
Se lee muy rápido, y el formato "elige tu propia aventura" encaja perfectamente en un libro con vocación más didáctica que narrativa. Lástima que pasado cierto nivel el camino "correcto" resulte evidente.
January 10, 2020
What an amazing book. It is an agile adventure. Based on choices you make, the story can go in different ways. I had my first run and I must say it reads easily, the story makes you curious for more and it is packed with a lot of information and references. Really loved it! Thanks!
March 28, 2019
This book reminded me of some scenarios I experienced myself. I read the book 2 times. I liked the book that much :). Plus it is an easy read.
January 1, 2014
Choose your own adventure is a fun and nostalgic way to make your way through this coaching story. I am happy to have chosen to read this digitally (.pdf on OS X), as I could follow links to continue with the adventure as well as go back after a misstep (command+[ in preview).
However, I only give the book 3 out of 5 stars based on the tools and exercises. You are given a very brief overview of each exercise as a participant would. In the vein of "the perfection game", to make this a 5 of 5 instead of simply referencing where they reside in the book the appendix would provide a more detailed overview or facilitator guide to truly "refer back and experiment with them in real life" as is indicated in the details Q & A
However, I only give the book 3 out of 5 stars based on the tools and exercises. You are given a very brief overview of each exercise as a participant would. In the vein of "the perfection game", to make this a 5 of 5 instead of simply referencing where they reside in the book the appendix would provide a more detailed overview or facilitator guide to truly "refer back and experiment with them in real life" as is indicated in the details Q & A
April 28, 2015
This was a fun and fast read that really focuses on key points for agile thinking. I think that it is a good book for anyone on an agile team, from dev to management because it can be read over a few days and is not a huge time investment. Since it is written as a story instead of in a textbook like style it can also make for evening reading for a few days. The biggest take away was really about the discipline needed for the basic concepts of agile. I picked up several reminders of things that I can do personally to increase my productivity and that I will be suggesting to my team.
Due to its format it does not make a very good book club read, even though you will want your whole team to read it.
Due to its format it does not make a very good book club read, even though you will want your whole team to read it.
January 20, 2014
The Dream Team Nightmare is great fun: a choose-your-own adventure book in which you play a consultant helping out a dysfunctional agile software team.
Wait: what? No really, it works. By choosing your own solutions to the real (or realistic, anyway) problems faced by the team, and investigating their interactions with other teams in the company, you get to understand many of the social problems software teams can face. You get to see what can go right-or wrong-when outsiders try to change things. And, if you get the print version, you get to use your thumb as a handy undo feature just like in the old days.
Wait: what? No really, it works. By choosing your own solutions to the real (or realistic, anyway) problems faced by the team, and investigating their interactions with other teams in the company, you get to understand many of the social problems software teams can face. You get to see what can go right-or wrong-when outsiders try to change things. And, if you get the print version, you get to use your thumb as a handy undo feature just like in the old days.
May 12, 2015
The choose-your-own-adventure framework was okay, in that it makes the point that you are always at a crossroads where you can do the wrong thing, the lazy thing, or with some effort, the team-building thing. Less okay -- throwing in a "fruits" joke. I subtracted a star just for that because the entire point of a choose-your-own-adventure is constructed, dynamic narratives -- crafting the world as you wish it rather than as it is -- you didn't *have* to include "being a dick towards gay people in a business book" in the meta-narrative, but you did.
March 6, 2016
The Dream Team Nightmare is a great example on what you can do with e-books. You read a bit before you need to make a decision. Depending on your decision the story ends abruptly or goes on. It’s exactly as it would be when you are the consultant you read about.
The most impressive thing on this book is the well transported fact, that one single wrong decision can destroy the whole build-up of trust. All works well and then it derails quickly and without a chance for recovery. It’s a great experience you should not miss.
The most impressive thing on this book is the well transported fact, that one single wrong decision can destroy the whole build-up of trust. All works well and then it derails quickly and without a chance for recovery. It’s a great experience you should not miss.
January 30, 2016
It is certainly a book about Agile coaching, but very different from other ones. If found it fun to read because of its adventure and fiction form.
By reading the book you follow an Agile coach in the most importants moments of a mission, so that you can learn Agile coaching practices and and bit of theory about Agile. Reading the book was like getting experience and lessons whithout any effort and with a bit of thrill and fun. Isn't it worth a five stars rating?
By reading the book you follow an Agile coach in the most importants moments of a mission, so that you can learn Agile coaching practices and and bit of theory about Agile. Reading the book was like getting experience and lessons whithout any effort and with a bit of thrill and fun. Isn't it worth a five stars rating?
November 11, 2014
In the real world, not all developers readily embrace all agile principles, we often work on a "Frankenstein's Monster" code base & we're humans who make mistakes. When things go wrong, they *really* go wrong.
As a ScrumMaster who has read lots of utopian agile manuals, this is a refreshing change which has taught me a lot about how to handle difficult situations. Recommended.
As a ScrumMaster who has read lots of utopian agile manuals, this is a refreshing change which has taught me a lot about how to handle difficult situations. Recommended.
November 14, 2015
The book fills a gap between other agile books (too abstract) and blog posts for "How Company X used Agile" (too specific).
The story is nice to follow and there are some funny wrong paths to take.
The story is nice to follow and there are some funny wrong paths to take.
October 25, 2015
I really liked this book. It's not perfect as at times it's a bit cheesy and of course the real world is much more complicated than what the book can portray, but there is a lot of excellent content and loads of good ideas.
I would definitely recommend any agile manager should read this book.
I would definitely recommend any agile manager should read this book.
June 18, 2012
A choose your own adventure for an agile coach...too awesome.
February 28, 2014
A must-read not just for developers but for those whose work involves a lot of collaboration.
March 30, 2014
Enjoyed reading it. ... Felt like back in the days with "Das schwarze Auge" role playing adventures. ;)
November 30, 2014
Quick read. A non-surprising intro book to agile from coaching stand point. Informative, contains good tricks to apply to typical hostile situations.
December 28, 2016
What if kind of Book. What happens when situation turns like this and that.
October 6, 2015
Read it in the airplane. Great and fun read! A book every agile coach should read, and maybe use as a pocket guide. It also made me laugh a couple of times :-)
January 10, 2016
I enjoyed reading this book.
April 29, 2016
Gamificated reading experience!
September 12, 2018
Great story. Few non-linear sidewalks, but very interesting. Some technics I ignored. Worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews