General Infotech - A Software Development Project Boardgame

After playing some eurogames and taking the suggestions from the BoardGameGeek thread, here is what I have so far:

I. Components:

A. Module Tiles – users connect random tiles taken from a bag (like Alhambra) to represent modules of the application. (It’s random because we’re simulating the random whims of a fickle-minded client.)

1. Screens
2. Presentation Layer Module
3. Business Layer Module
4. Data Access Layer Module
5. Database
6. Services Module
7. Reports

B. Time Unit Counters – represents amount of time available for budgeting. There is a fixed number of counters available per human resource per turn.

C. Quality Counters – represents completed work and the quality of the work. These are placed on the module tiles after each round based on the activities performed. Up to 6 of each type of quality counters may be added to each module. They serve as “defence” against negative incident cards.

1. R – Requirements
2. FD – Functional Design
3. TD – Technical Design
4. C – Code
5. TC – Tested Code

D. Defect Counters – represents defects found (added from “bug” incident cards) If defect for the module reaches 10, all quality counters are taken away, representing rework from scratch. These are added either by incidents or by careless resources.

E. Activity Board – Depicting an office scene (cubicle farm!), it contains sections that represent specific activities performed by the team (similar to Stone Age). Players use time unit counters and allocate them to activity areas.

1. Requirements
2. Functional Design
3. Technical Design
4. Development
New Code
Bug Fix
Refactor
5. QA Test
6. UAT Test
7. Deploy
8. Implement Tool / Process

F. Manpower Cards – represents resources. These cards are placeholders for time unit counters at the start of each turn. Manpower have ratings for specific activities, and they represent the number of quality counters that may be added for every time unit spent:
1. Analysis
2. Design
3. Code
4. Test

They may also have special abilities. Examples:
1. System Administration – exempting from system incidents
2. Client Relationship
3. Tools Experience – minus one time requirement when installing a new technology
4. Refactoring – minus one time requirement when performing refactoring*

*Refactoring may be a prerequisite when applying a new technology. It must be applied across all modules covered by the technology. Refactoring work is represented by a defect counter added to the module.

G. Tools and Technology Tiles – represents tools, techniques, architectural additions They provide improvements such as additional quality counters per unit of work, or exemption from negative incidents. A technology tree relates the tools and technologies to their prerequisites.

1. IDE
2. Static Code Analysis
3. Unit Testing Framework
4. Continuous Integration
5. Bug Testing Tool
6. Source Code Repository
7. ORM Framework
8. Presentation Framework
9. IOC Container
10. UI Widgets Library
11. Business/Data Library
12. Configuration Library
13. Logging and Error Handling Library
14. Security Library
15. Enterprise Framework
16. Project Management System
17. Modelling Tool
18. Document Management System

H. Incident Cards – represents events that may occur when developing the application. Incident cards also act as a game clock. It ends when there are no cards left.

Examples:
1. Sick Leave – choose a resource and eliminate all time units for this turn
2. Tool Downtime – choose a technology tile and turn it over. It provides no bonus for the next 2 rounds.
3. Network Problem – deduct time counters for this round unless a resource has System Administration ability.
4. Level I/II/III Bug – choose 1/2/3 modules and roll 1/2/3 dice. If the dice result is greater than the quality counters, add that number of defects to the modules.

I. SDLC Board – one board per player, it indicates the development path of the project and times the addition of new module tiles; highlights milestones, each representing victory points. These will contain special instructions specific to the methodology represented by the board, such as waterfall (all module tiles are available, but players may only move to the next phase once all modules are complete for that phase) or agile (module tiles are taken a fixed number at a time, and complete them before going to the next one.)

J. Budget Cards – 10 cards are provided to each player at the start of the game. It allows you to do any of the following:

1. Temporarily add resources for one round
2. Acquire new technology with no additional cost

Budget cards count for additional points for completed projects

II. Game Play

A. Organize – check for milestones in SDLC board and perform indicated task (such as get a new module tile)

B. Apply Additional Budget (optional)

C. Distribute Time Unit Counters to Activities / Technologies

D. Apply Quality Counters

E. Pick an Incident Card and choose to keep or play Mr. Murphy (apply effect to the player to your left)

F. Return all Time Unit Counters to Resource

Strategic Play

The elements allow strategies that involve time, scope, cost and quality.

For instance:
- sacrifice quality by moving to the next phase / module without additional development review / testing work, at the risk of getting bugs by incident cards
- increase cost using budget cards to get temporary resource / new technologies to speed up the work
- reduce scope. Sacrifice some victory points related to number of deployed modules in exchange for more time to produce better quality work.

Players will also be made to choose whether to spend time developing frameworks, improving processes or installing technology tools, or just devote more time to pure development work.