Ball Point Game

Run the Ball Point agile game with your team to learn about self-organization, flow and iterative improvement. Rules, facilitation steps, debrief questions and variations.

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Experiment and play in multiple teams while learning about continuous improvement

The Ball Point game helps a Scrum team experience agile delivery first-hand. By running the production process themselves, the team feels why self-organization, flow and iterative working matter — and why a short retrospective between iterations changes the result.

Learning goals

The agile production process and iterative working.

Time and format

About 60 minutes, in person or virtual.

What you need

4+ players and a set of ping pong balls (multicoloured works best).

How the game works

The objective of Ball Point is to get as many balls through the system as possible in a fixed number of iterations. Teams estimate how many they can move, run a timed round, hold a quick retrospective, then try to beat their own score — the same loop agile teams use to improve sprint over sprint.

Agile ball game rules

  • There are 3 minutes per iteration and 5 iterations.
  • In between, there is a 1-minute retrospective.
  • The ball needs to start and end with the same person.
  • The ball must have passed through everyone in the team.
  • The ball must have air time.
  • It can’t be passed to the person next to them.
  • If the ball is dropped, it does not count.

How to facilitate

  1. Gather the team and explain the goal and the rules.
  2. Ask the team to estimate how many balls they will move in an iteration.
  3. Start the timer and run the iteration.
  4. Record the score after each round.
  5. Hold a timed retrospective so the team can adjust its strategy.
  6. Repeat for all five iterations.

Debrief questions

Run the debrief as a retrospective in TeamRetro so everyone can add their own perspective anonymously before you discuss as a group.

  • What was your experience like in the game?
  • How did the iterations differ?
  • What changes did you make, and what effect did they have?
  • How important were the retrospectives?
  • How different was the last iteration from the first?
  • Did you experience the concept of flow?
  • Which iteration stood out?
  • How did you feel working as a team?
  • Did leadership change during the iterations?
  • What did you learn from playing this game?

Variations

  • Split a large group into smaller teams, each working in its own zone.
  • Add rules around the colour or numbered sequence of the balls.
  • Introduce chaos by calling out position switches mid-iteration.