1. Designing in Teams The Cooperative Game
Dr. Alistair Cockburn

2. People ... Inventing Communicating Creating a solution
Solving a problem
Expressing ideas in languages
Deciding
… they don’t understand
which keeps changing
… they don’t understand
which keep changing
… they don’t understand
which keeps changing
To an interpreter unforgiving of error
Making decisions
every decision has economic consequences
and resources are limited.

3. Design is a cooperative game.
Infinite
Competitive
Cooperative
Open-ended
Goal-directed
Career Management
Organization Survival
Product Lines
King-of-the-hill
wrestling
Poker
Jazz music
Rock-Climbing
Theater
Engineering
Journalism
Business initiatives
Software Development
Tennis
Chess
Swamp Game - Imagine a competition in which each team must build something somewhere in a swamp. They don’t know exactly what they have to build, they don’t know where they have to build it, and they don’t have a map of the swamp, but they are in a race to build it. They will create subteams. Some will scavenge for building materials, others will explore the swamp, and so on. Note that this corresponds to people finding different specialties in software development.
If they have to play only one round of the game, they will find it optimal to build the weakest, sloppiest bridges and to draw the most careless maps possible to get to the end of the game. However, if they know another team will be coming in after them, they may choose to make better maps, better bridges, better paths. This difference between strategies corresponds to a software project team updating their system documentation and training their junior people.

4. Design games are rich - they rarely repeat.
Number of people coordinated
Comfort
Essential
moneys
Life
. . .
Prioritized for Legal Liability
1 - 6
- 20
- 40
- 100
- 200
- 500
- 1,000 C6
C20
C40
C100
C200
C500
C1000 D6
D20
D40
D100
D200
D500
D1000 E6
E20
E40
E100
E200
E500
E1000 L6
L20
L40
L100
L200
L500
L1000
Prioritized for Productivity & Tolerance
Discretionary
Criticality
Comfort
Essential
moneys
Life
Discretionary
Criticality C6
C20
C40
C100 D6
D20
D40
D100 E6
E20
E40
E100 L6
L20
L40
L100 X X
Number of people coordinated
1 - 6
- 20
- 40
- 100

5. Cooperation involves trust.
Personal safety Ability to speak without fear of reprisal.
Amicability Willingness to listen with good will.

6. Quick test: What are the communication properties of this office?
Photo courtesy of Thoughtworks corp.

7. Communication is like perfume: stronger when close.
2 people at
whiteboard
2 people
on phone
Effectiveness of Communication
(Courtesy of Thoughtworks, inc.)
2 people
on chat
Videotape
(Question-&-Answer)
Paper
(No Question-&-Answer)
Communication channels in play ("warmth" of communication)

8. Distance is expensive.
Kim
Pat
Co-working / Programming in pairs
Kim
Pat
12 people: $100,000 / yr penalty
Discussion drops after the length of a school bus!
Kim
Pat
12 people $300,000 / yr penalty

9. "But these. - Cooperative Game. - People. - Trust. topics are. fluffy

10. Meet Fluffy!