Collaborative Games

Collaborative Games: A Comprehensive Guide for PMI-PBA Exam Preparation

Why Collaborative Games are Important in Business Analysis

Collaborative games are essential tools in a business analyst's arsenal for several reasons:

1. They break down communication barriers between stakeholders from different departments or backgrounds.

2. They foster creative thinking and generate innovative solutions that might not emerge through traditional elicitation methods.

3. They create a relaxed environment where participants feel comfortable sharing ideas and concerns.

4. They increase stakeholder engagement and ownership in the requirements process.

5. They help reveal requirements and insights that might remain hidden in formal interview settings.

What are Collaborative Games?

Collaborative games (also called serious games or innovation games) are structured activities designed to engage stakeholders in a fun, interactive environment to elicit requirements, solve problems, prioritize features, or generate ideas. Unlike traditional elicitation techniques such as interviews or questionnaires, collaborative games leverage play dynamics to stimulate creativity and collaboration.

In the context of the PMI-PBA framework, collaborative games fall under elicitation techniques and are particularly valuable when dealing with complex problems, diverse stakeholder groups, or when traditional approaches have yielded limited results.

How Collaborative Games Work

The general process for implementing collaborative games includes:

1. Preparation: Select an appropriate game based on the specific goals (e.g., prioritization, idea generation, problem-solving). Prepare necessary materials and space.

2. Introduction: Explain the purpose, rules, and expected outcomes to participants.

3. Facilitation: Guide the activity while remaining neutral, ensuring all voices are heard.

4. Documentation: Capture insights, decisions, and requirements that emerge during the game.

5. Debriefing: Review results with participants and validate the captured information.

Common Types of Collaborative Games

1. Affinity Mapping: Participants write ideas on sticky notes and organize them into logical groupings.

2. Buy a Feature: Stakeholders are given play money to "purchase" features, revealing priorities through spending patterns.

3. Spider Web: Stakeholders build connections between ideas or requirements using yarn or string to visualize relationships.

4. Product Box: Teams design a box for the product/solution, forcing them to identify key selling points and features.

5. Speedboat: A metaphorical game where anchors represent obstacles, and propellers represent enablers for a project or product.

6. Remember the Future: Participants imagine the project has been successfully completed and describe how it was achieved.

7. 20/20 Vision: Participants take turns answering questions about the project's vision and goals.

When to Use Collaborative Games

- During initial requirements gathering to stimulate creative thinking
- When stakeholders come from diverse backgrounds or departments
- When traditional methods have reached an impasse or plateau
- For prioritizing requirements or features with multiple stakeholders
- To identify pain points or obstacles in current processes
- To build consensus among stakeholders with different perspectives

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Collaborative Games

1. Recognize the purpose: Understand that different games serve different purposes. For example, "Buy a Feature" is primarily for prioritization, while "Product Box" focuses on identifying key features and benefits.

2. Know the benefits and limitations: Be prepared to identify when collaborative games are appropriate and when they might not be the best choice. They excel at engagement and creativity but may require more time and preparation than other techniques.

3. Understand the BA's role: In exam questions, remember that the business analyst serves as a neutral facilitator, not a participant with personal opinions during the game.

4. Connect to other techniques: Be ready to explain how collaborative games complement other elicitation techniques. For example, insights gained from a collaborative game might be validated through follow-up interviews.

5. Focus on outcomes: In scenario-based questions, look for the desired outcome (prioritization, idea generation, etc.) to determine which collaborative game would be most appropriate.

6. Recognize common challenges: Be familiar with typical problems that arise during collaborative games, such as dominant personalities, time constraints, or difficulty in documenting results.

7. Watch for situational clues: Exam questions may contain hints about stakeholder dynamics or project context that point toward a specific collaborative game as the best answer.

8. Understand how to analyze results: Know that the output of collaborative games must be properly analyzed and translated into formal requirements or other project artifacts.

When facing exam questions about collaborative games, always consider the specific context, the objective of the elicitation activity, and the stakeholder dynamics described in the scenario. This will help you select the most appropriate game or determine how to best facilitate the chosen activity.