The Agile Self-assessment Game (English Book & Cards (Agile, Scrum, DevOps, Kanban, Business Agility))
The Agile Self-assessment Game
An Agile Coaching Tool for Improving the Agility of Your Teams and Organization
About the Book
Updates:
- Also available on Amazon in Paperback at amazon.com/9492119161
- Also available in Spanish: El Juego de Autoevaluación Ágil
The Agile Self-Assessment Game is used by teams and organizations to self-assess their agility. Playing the game enables teams to reflect on their own team interworking, discover how agile they are and decide what they can do to increase their agility to deliver more value to their customers and stakeholders.
This is the first book specifically about Agile Self-assessments. In this book, Ben Linders explains what self-assessments are and why you would do them, and explore how to do them using the Agile Self-assessment Game. He's also sharing experience stories from people who played the game.
This book is based on his experience as a developer, tester, team leader, project manager, quality manager, process manager, consultant, coach, trainer, and adviser in Agile, Lean, Quality and Continuous Improvement. It takes a deep dive into self-assessments, viewing them from different perspectives and provides ideas, suggestions, practices, and experiences that will help you to do effective agile self-assessments with your teams.
The book is aimed at Scrum masters, agile coaches, consultants leading agile transformations, developers and testers, project managers, line managers, and CxOs; basically for anyone who is looking for an effective way to help their agile teams improve and to increase the agility of their organization.
To play the game described in the book, please buy a package that includes the cards. Currently available are:
- Agile Self-assessment Game - English edition: The book (in English) with 52 basic Agile cards and expansions packs for Scrum (39 cards), Kanban (52 cards), DevOps (26 cards) and Business Agility (26 cards). Total of 195 English cards!
- Juego Autoevaluación Ágil - Spanish edition: The book (in English) with 52 basic Agile cards in Spanish and expansions packs in Spanish for Scrum (39 cards), Kanban (52 cards), DevOps (26 cards) and Business Agility (26 cards). Total of 195 Spanish cards!
- Agilní sebehodnotící hra - Czech edition: The book (in English) with 52 basic Agile cards in Czech and expansions packs in Czech for Scrum (39 cards), Kanban (52 cards), DevOps (26 cards) and Business Agility (26 cards). Total of 195 Czech cards!
- Gra Agile Self-Assessment - Polish edition: The book (in English) with 52 basic Agile cards in Polish and expansions packs in Polish for Scrum (39 cards), Kanban (52 cards), DevOps (26 cards) and Business Agility (26 cards). Total of 195 Polish cards!
- Agile Zelfevaluatie Kaarten - Dutch edition: The book (in English) with 52 basic Agile cards in Dutch and expansions packs in Dutch for Scrum (39 cards), Kanban (52 cards), DevOps (26 cards), and Business Agility (26 cards). Total of 195 Dutch cards!
- Jeu de cartes d’autoévaluation Agile - French edition: The book (in English) with 52 basic Agile cards in French. Total of 52 French cards!
Additional cards can be bought in the Agile Games webshop.
More information can be found on the Agile Self-assessment Game website.
Packages
English Book & Cards (Agile, Scrum, DevOps, Kanban, Business Agility)
The Agile Self-assessment Game book with all 195 English cards: Agile, Scrum, Kanban, DevOps, and Business Agility (PDF format)
PDF
EPUB
MOBI
WEB
English
The Book
The Agile Self-assessment Game ebook without cards. Select a package with cards if you want to play the game.
PDF
EPUB
MOBI
WEB
English
Jeu de cartes d’autoévaluation Agile - English book & French cards (Agile)
The Agile Self-assessment Game book in English with 52 French cards: Agile (PDF format)
Includes:
French Cards (Agile)
PDF
EPUB
MOBI
WEB
English
Juego Autoevaluación Ágil - English Book & Spanish Cards (Agile, Scrum, DevOps, Kanban, Business Agility)
The Agile Self-assessment Game book in English with all 195 Spanish cards: Agile, Scrum, Kanban, DevOps, and Business Agility (PDF format)
Includes:
Spanish Cards (Agile, Scrum, Kanban, DevOps, Business Agility)
PDF
EPUB
MOBI
WEB
English
Agilní sebehodnotící hra - English Book & Czech Cards (Agile, Scrum, DevOps, Kanban, Business Agility)
The Agile Self-assessment Game book in English with all 195 Czech cards: Agile, Scrum, Kanban, DevOps, and Business Agility (PDF format)
Includes:
Czech Cards (Agile, Scrum, Kanban, DevOps, Business Agility)
PDF
EPUB
MOBI
WEB
English
Gra Agile Self-Assessment - English Book & Polish Cards (Agile, Scrum, DevOps, Kanban, Business Agility)
The Agile Self-assessment Game book in English with all 143 Polish cards: Agile, Scrum, DevOps, Kanban, and Business Agility (PDF format)
Includes:
Polish Cards (Agile, Scrum, DevOps, Kanban, Business Agility)
PDF
EPUB
MOBI
WEB
English
Agile Zelfevaluatie Kaarten - English book & Dutch cards (Agile, Scrum, DevOps, Kanban, Business Agility)
The Agile Self-assessment Game book in English with 117 Dutch cards: Agile, Scrum, DevOps, Kanban, Business Agility (PDF format)
Includes:
Dutch cards (Agile, Scrum, DevOps, Kanban, Business Agility)
PDF
EPUB
MOBI
WEB
English
Bundles that include this book
Reader Testimonials

Amir Peled
Agile Coach at ING Software Development Center
A fabulous game which helps the team to better understand where they are in their agile journey, generate some insight and determine what they can do next to improve.

Dimitris Dimitrelos
Agile Coach at Accenture
I played the game and it was very helpful. We realized our agile maturity level, recognized actionable improvements and had great fun and insights!

Sandy Mamoli
Agile Coach & Founder at Nomad8
I liked the discussions the cards prompted: they surfaced a lot of things and we had great conversations.

Lisa Sieverts
Instructor at Harvard University Extension School
I played the game with my students. The benefits we got are a better understanding of what needs to be in place within the team and organization for successful agile. It’s fun and a good way to start productive conversations within the team.

Brandi Olson
Chief Agelist at Brandi Olson Consulting
Playing the game builds clarity and alignment on what Agile means to everyone on the team and helps team members meaningfully evaluate their agility.

Craig Eddy
Chief Developer at Empact Development
The game plays through quite easily and participants remarked that the exercise was quite valuable. We generated a ton of insights and even some concrete action items (which is relatively rare for this team).

Christine Schubert
Agile Coach at National Council of Architectural Registration Boards
It’s a great tool to use for a retrospective. The game engages the whole team and generates good discussion.

Berry Kersten
Agile consultant at Improve Quality Services
I have played the agile self-assessment with multiple teams. The participants had little experience with (serious) games, but the game was self-explaining and the teams had great fun playing. As the agile self-assessment is played in low threshold manner, I would recommend it for every team that is struggling with improving the agile process.

Andreas Schliep
Executive Partner at DasScrumTeam
I really recommend the Self Assessment Game for Scrum Masters or Agile Teams as a way to facilitate and focus the discussion about possible improvements.

Peter Rubarth
Scrum Master, Agile Coach & Master Producteer
The Agile Self-Assessment Game helped us to reflect on where we are in a fun way.

Michael Whitworth
Agile Coach, Trainer, Advisor at Agileize
Great game – very powerful providing wonderful insights.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
-
Agile Self-assessment Game
- Assessing your Agility
- Gamification
- Playing the Game
- Getting the Cards
- Doing Retrospectives using Assessments
-
Playing Suggestions
- Creating the Cards
- Preselecting Cards
- Basic Game Playing Format
- Variants on the Basic Game
- Health Check
- Investing in Agile
- Sailboat Retrospective with the Game
- First Things First
- Deep Thought
- Best Agile Practice Contest
- Worst Agile Practice Contest
- Sketching your Agile Journey
- Learning by Sharing Challenges
- Sailboat Futurespective
- Angel’s Advocate
- Two Truths and a Lie
- More Ideas for Playing the Game
-
Experience Stories
- Playing the Agile Self-assessment Game at XP Days 2016
- Help Scrum and Agile Teams Improve
- Ideas for playing the Agile Self-assessment Game
- Playing the Agile Self-assessment Game in Retrospectives
- Self-assessing How Agile You Are
- Your Experience Story
- Frequently Asked Questions
-
Assessment Tools and Checklists
- Tools and Checklists for Agile Self-assessments
- Nederlandstalige Agile Assessments
- Background Information on Agile Self-Assessments
-
Getting the Agile Self-assessment Cards
- Download from Ben Linders’ Webshop
- Packages with Cards
-
Training and Support
- Kick-off Training for Agile Self-assessment Game
- Agile Self-assessment Game - Corporate Edition
- Assessing your Agility Services
- Increasing your Agility Workshops
- Free Lifetime Support for Playing the Game
- About the Author
- Bibliography
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