The instructions below concern the extended version 6 of the IT-governance game. In case the value of a parameter depends on the number of business units playing then its value regarding 3 business units is followed by [its value regarding 4 business units in square brackets].
To prepare the game the following has to be done:
- put the 1st phase application portfolio (the game board with 9 segments without subdivision) on the floor
- place the IT managers placemat on a table and put the bank notes and the egg timer on it
- organise for the IT manager
- portfolio administrations
- in particular the preprinted startportfolii
- reports
- in particular the preprinted startreports
- this instruction
- organise the pawns by colour, form and number
- place pawns on the application portfolio conforming to the starting positions table
To start the game
- issue the rules of the game (for the 1st phase, these contain the introduction slides)
- walk through the introduction slides
- write the wrap up (last slide of the presentation) on the flipover
Start a new fiscal year by
- announcing
- the total turn over of each business unit seperately
- the orange jacket is handed to the business unit with the highest turn over
- the maintenance costs (viz the number of systems not under architecture)
- paying the business units their turn over
- issuing the business units their reports (starting without a demonstration round there are no reports to start the first round)
- starting the egg timer
- first playing round (= fiscal year 6) 15 minutes
- all the other fiscal years last 10 minutes
To play a round during the 1st phase
- business units can start projects by asking the IT manager to do so on their behalf, in that case the IT manager writes down in the project portfolio on a new line
- team
- segment
- type of project (mig, ren, def, off, ant)
- the number of steps needed for this type of project in the previous fiscal year
- attention:
- the whole of the organisation can start no more than 2 [3] projects each fiscal year
- there can be no more than 5 [6] projects running simultaneously
- newly started projects have to be funded during the same fiscal year in which they are started otherwise they will be cancelled during the evaluation break
- business units can fund projects, in that case the IT manager writes down in this fiscal year of the project portfolio the number of steps remaining after funding (viz the number in the previous fiscal year minus the number of steps paid for), so 0 means that the project is finished
- development costs per project depend on (see the game rules)
- the number of steps taken
- the type of project
- attention: the whole of the organisation can fund no more than 11 [15] development investments each fiscal year
- business units can fund maintenance, in that case the IT manager writes down a 0 in this fiscal year of the application portfolio
- maintenance costs per system are the number of systems not under architecture
When the egg timer signals time is over the evalution break starts and the IT-manager calculates the new state of the game in the following order
- project portfolio, for each project
- if the project was not funded add 1 to the number of remaining steps and write this down in this fiscal year of the project portfolio
- if the number of remaining steps is higher than the number of steps needed for this type of project the project is cancelled by blotting out this project on the project portfolio
- if a project is finished (0 remaining steps in this fiscal year)
- on the project portfolio blot out this project
- on the application portfolio
- if the system is new
- write down in a new line on the application portfolio
- team
- segment
- put an X in the current fiscal year
- if the project was anticipative put an X in architecture
- if the project was
- mig: put an X in architecture
- ren: put an X in this fiscal year
- application portfolio
- if a system either was not maintained or has 5 0's kill the system by blotting out this system on the application portfolio
- also renewed systems need to be maintained
- calculate the turn over per system, in order of decending seniority
- 1 system present: 10
- 2 systems present: 6 and 4
- 3 systems present: 5, 3 and 2
- write down the market totals per business unit on the flipover
- make reports for each business unit:
- for each project write down it's type and the number of remaining steps
- if the line for a system has 4 0's also put an X in end of life
- calculate the maintenance costs for systems: the number of systems not under architecture
- write down the maintenance costs on the flipover
When chaos is complete (usually after 3 to 4 fiscal years) embark on a larger scale evaluation thus furnishing the IT manager with time to switch to the 2nd phase
- replace the 1st phase game board with the other 2 game boards
- in case 3 business units playing use 6 green square pawns to block the 6th column on the project portfolio
- put down the pawns on the game boards conforming to the administration
- for each project
- put down a round pawn in the colour of the team with the number of the segment up side down on the project target
- put down a square pawn of the same colour in the same column as many rows above the round pawn as there are steps remaining
- for each system put a square pawn in its segment
- systems under architecture in the lower part of it's segment and the others in the higher part of it's segment
- systems are to be put in the columns in order of seniority, the oldest system on the left
- systems are to be put in row number (1 + number of 0's in the application portfolio)
- take out the administration of the IT manager, the game boards now hold this information
- hand out the rules of the game for phase 2
