The Standard Pig

This pig game demonstrates the value of standard workflows.

First arrange the workshop participants into teams. An ideal team size is five people. Four of the team take the roles of developers who need to produce standard work and avoid waste in the form of variation of results within the team.The last team member takes the role of development lead who has to instruct the team to produce standard results.

Secondly, issue the developers with three sheets of paper with the grid above on. These will be used to draw the standard pig.

The game is played in rounds. In each round the development lead must give instructions to their team in order to produce the standard pig as below.

To assist the teams, sample instructions are given that increase in complexity. By the end of the game, each team member should be able to produce a standard pig that is very close to those of the other team members.

Do note that the teams are aiming for a standard pig, not an aesthetically pleasing one!

The standard pig cards document contains a template that may be printed onto A4 paper that will provide grids for each participant and instructions for each round for the development lead.