Three Little Pigs is a fun retrospective activity that uses the Three Little Pigs story to foster a conversation about improvements for making our structures more solid.
Running the activity:
- Draw and explain the three columns to participants:
* House of straw: What do we do that just about hangs together, but could topple over at any minute? (E.g. “our deployment script is very manual, and prone to error—we could break production very easily.”
* House of sticks: What do we do that is pretty solid, but could be improved? (E.g. “our automated tests are pretty good, but sometimes they fail for no reason, and we have to run them again, which is a pain.”)
* House of bricks: What do we do that is rock solid? (E.g. “our automated deployment has never failed. It rocks.”) - Ask participants to share their comments on sticky notes and place them on one of the three columns.
- Filter and group conversation about action items.
It is an awesome and fun activity, especially when it involves a good drawing of the three pigs with their houses. It is a good activity for data gathering and works well as an alternative to keep the team engaged while slightly changing the format.
Remote-team advice: This activity works well for remote teams. Use a remote board of your choice.