Learning ITBM through gamification
(Contributed by Mark Bodman from the IT Business Management BU Mark is the Product Manager for Application Portfolio Management)
We can take a breath after completing our Knowledge 17 conference, it as a phenomenally busy week of learning, presenting, sharing and networking. In our ITBM business unit, we kicked off Knowledge 17 activities with a sold-out 2 day session: "Optimize IT Value though Application Rationalization and Portfolio Management". We had a lot of fun and we created a remarkable new game we can leverage for years to come that we would like to share with the broader team.
Like most sessions at Knowledge we worked into our busy day job all the preparation needed, putting our heads together to come up with a 2-day agenda that would immerse our attendees in the total value of ITBM. ITBM for those who don't know includes IT Financial Management, Project and Portfolio Management and Application Portfolio Management. Within our BU, we have teams that know each product well, but it was a challenge to come up with a method to demonstrate the combined value of these products in a coherent, cohesive way.
There was a prescriptive format for the 2 day sessions, and we were asked to come up with a game to make our sessions fun, promote discussions and lead folks to the value we provide. Sean, Rob and I met to brainstorm this topic where we came up with a novel game we called; Application Portfolio Rationalization, the game.
To minimize our preparation time, we decided to leverage our APM demo data which consists of 52 applications. This sparked an idea; card game. The financials from ITFM and the planning process of PPM were pulled in to demonstrate the value each product provides. We created a placemat of application categories that looks like the product's Visual Task board, and printed the cards to place on the board, each representing an application with data, sort of like monopoly properties.
So we devised a game that is played in 3 rounds as follows:
- Emotional Drowning Round: We provided our players with a set of 26 cards, each representing an application with metadata that could be used for comparing them. The objective was to identify 3 applications to retire, based on provided information. A placemat offered an easy way to group similar applications to quickly see the overlaps, however this wasn't enough. Some categories had many applications, making it easy to find overlaps, unfortunately identifying which ones should be retired was impossible because poor application data was provided. There was no basis for making the decision on which applications made sense to keep, or get rid of even when there were clear redundancies. This created angst amongst our players, there were no winners in this round.
- With ServiceNow Round: We threw away the first set of 26 cards and replaced them with a better set, this time with all data filled in to provide a better foundation to complete the task. To compare applications, cost, customer satisfaction and risk scores made it clear which applications were better, or worse in each category. Each team presented their findings, prioritizing the apps that provided the greatest improvement based on the data provided. Most teams had the same answers, and each team could defend their justification with real data.
- M&A Round: The last phase of the game we surprised the players with a special event; An additional 26 cards representing a merger event. Instantly, there were double the application count with overlaps across the board, 52 applications in total. We discussed tradeoff's for keeping certain applications over the others, and introduced additional concerns to be considered such as strategic vendor relationships, platforms vs. one-off applications, and highlighted importance to identify which application activities to prioritize over others.
The feedback from our attendees was positive. Our game was the most memorable, fun, and interactive aspect of our 2 day session. To commemorate this moment, I posted a picture to LinkedIn with a tongue-in-cheek comment that APM the game would be "fun at parties". The Linked-in response was unexpectedly phenomenal with 9,200+ views, 60+ likes and 20+ requests for copies of the game. Wow, who knew others would appreciate this game.
We are currently planning to make this game more professional for use in Marketing, services and events in the future. This surpasses our expectations, who would have guessed such simple game on such a mundane topic could be this effective, and wanted. (For additional information contact Mark.Bodman@ServiceNow.com)
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