Last year I did a half-day DevOps workshop for a group of Scrum masters. I started out the workshop with a little group exercise I want to describe here. The goal of the exercise was to demonstrate the silos problem that DevOps aims to resolve.

1. Set up

   • Split into two groups of aprox. 2-4 people each

     If you have a large group, say 12 or more people, you may wish to run the simulation in two groups simultaneously.

   • Supplies

     Group A gets: A box of toothpicks and a roll of masking tape

     Group B gets: A kitchen scale and a 12 inch/30 cm ruler

     The facilitator needs a time keeping device, such as a kitchen timer or mobile phone with alarm function.

2. Phase 1, 5 minutes

   Group A is instructed to build a tower with the toothpicks and tape. It must:

   • Be exactly 20cm tall
   • Weigh exactly 40 grams / 1.5 ounces
   • Not fall over when someone blows on it

   When the timer sounds, the group must stop working.

3. Phase 2, 2 minutes

   Group B inspects the tower, using their ruler, kitchen scale, and lungs. They may do this in isolation/out of sight of Group A, if desired.

   Group B offers a simple pass/fail grade to Group A, with no further commentary

4. Phase 3, 3 minutes

   Group A has 3 minutes to make any necessary modifications to their tower to pass inspection.

5. Phase 4, 2 minutes

   Once again, Group B does an inspection, and offers a pass/fail grade.

6. Discussion

   Then of course, discuss the exercise!

   Traditional IT often puts Devs (aka Group A) at odds with Ops or even QA (aka Group B).

   • How did the exercise make you feel?
   • How could the outcome (a tower that passes inspection) be improved by a different approach?
   • How many different ways can you think of that Groups A & B could be structured to work together?
     • What if the groups are joined?
     • What if the groups remain separate?