Responding to a work estimation query on the Game Production Community Discord channel (https://discord.gg/gameproduction), these are my thoughts on the WHY, WHO FOR, etc around the topic. I don't go into detail around actual estimation, but use this to explore a whole range of influencing topics. It's all about gathering information, great communication and delivering value. Apologies for the lack of interesting visual content - you might prefer to just listen at 1.5x and go do something else with your eyeballs ;) I also didn't edit out any belches or cock-ups. Please let me know what you would like covered in more detail and I'll find some production friends to come help out with answering your questions. Liam ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TOPICS COVERED: 1. High Level 00:00:00 Introduction 00:02:00 Why are we estimating work? 00:04:00 Who are we estimating for? 00:06:45 At what stage of the game have we reached? 00:15:37 Is the team within a discipline or cross-departmental? 00:19:32 What system are we using to record estimates? 00:23:04 What methodology are we using? 00:26:46 Agile and story points vs time estimation (I meant Fibonacci sequence!) 00:34:00 Inefficiencies of time estimations at different levels 00:35:35 Top level estimations vs Task by Task estimations 00:40:00 Discovery vs Grinding phases 00:48:20 Art differences when estimating 00:55:00 Design differences when estimating 01:01:50 Engineering differences when estimating 01:06:10 Roadmap vs plan estimations 2. Bit more detailed 01:10:20 Hours vs days 01:13:20 Build in admin time or strictly work only? 01:18:15 Are we using time remaining or total time used? 01:23:26 Sub-tasks or user stories? 01:24:40 Still remembering the WHY? 01:26:25 Should you build in safety margins? 01:30:35 Should you take into account individual accuracy? 01:32:05 Consistent estimating within and across teams 01:33:23 Are you helping or hindering? Dependency tracking.. 01:35:30 Learning through listening ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and all that malarkey. Comments are welcome, even rude ones. If you want to help, then please make contact at the website and help out! We welcome contributors. For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out: http://www.game-production.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ABOUT GAME PRODUCTION ACADEMY Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training. Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us. http://www.game-production.com FOLLOW US: https://www.game-production.com/

Part 3 of Agile for Game Producers. Part One is here: https://youtu.be/eLSUnWZ1jUE Part Two is here: https://youtu.be/B-2BB6DW3hw This time we get into the details of how we develop a game and what that implies for use of Scrum and Kanban, with a lot more practical detail and illustrations. We go over how the job of exploration and discovery influences the choice of methodology and how, over time, that will change. There's advice on customising Scrum and setting us up for the next part on kanban. I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know what you would like covered in more detail and I'll find some production friends to come help out with answering your questions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:10 Kanban vs Scrum use cases 00:05:25 Which to use during game dev stages - spoilers! 00:11:30 Another brick in the wall: remember the bigger picture 00:14:50 Blueprint - the architect's map of the game 00:28:23 Some examples of pillars, core mechanics etc 00:30:29 Reordering the known and unknown 00:36:30 So which pieces are right for Scrum? 00:38:42 And where do we use Kanban then? 00:41:20 Customised suggestion of how to use Scrum 00:54:40 How the roles inform each other and what they do 01:00:09 What does it all mean? How all this discovery influences the game plan and vision 01:04:44 What we're covering in the next part ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and all that malarkey. Comments are welcome, even rude ones. If you think you can do better then please make contact at the website and help out! We welcome contributors. For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out: http://www.game-production.com ABOUT GAME-PRODUCTION.COM Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training. Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us. http://www.game-production.com FOLLOW US: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gameproductioncommunity Website: https://www.game-production.com/

Part 5 I think of the Agile Series. I've lost count. This one covers the mighty Kanban - a method that goes way beyond just a board with some columns and cards. We cover visualisation, WIP limits, classes of service, prioritisation, continuous improvement and all that malarkey. I personally adore Kanban but there's a lot to cover to understand it even at a basic level. It's a long one as a result, so you might need a lot of coffee. Well worth it though - come flow with me. Thanks if you have been following this far and bless you! ------------------ 00:00:00 Introduction and Gratitude expressed 00:07:30 Kanbanize intro 00:08:45 Kanban - more than a board 00:17:00 Visualise Workflow 00:18:20 Bottlenecks 00:24:30 Limiting Work in Process/Progress 00:32:40 Avoiding unnecessary meetings 00:33:00 Visualise Blockers 00:36:00 Metrics - and not ever estimating work anymore! 00:49:50 WIP Limits in more detail & Queueing Theory 01:08:40 Classes of Service for Risk and Prioritsation 01:27:50 Ceremonies - Replenishment and more - continuous improvement 01:34:00 Examples of me implementing kanban 01:39:50 Breaking work down to as small as makes sense - flowing work 01:42:00 Visualise priorities 01:47:00 Flow, flow, flow your boat 01:50:30 Excited Liam encourages you to read up on Kanban ------------------ Please LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and all that malarkey. Comments are welcome, even rude ones. If you think you can do better then please make contact at the website and help out! We welcome contributors. For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out: http://www.game-production.com ABOUT GAME-PRODUCTION.COM Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training. Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us. http://www.game-production.com FOLLOW US: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gameproductioncommunity Website: https://www.game-production.com/

Part 2 of Agile for Game Producers. Part One is here: https://youtu.be/eLSUnWZ1jUE This time we focus on the more recent history of scrumban, LESS and SAFe - the era of scaled agile! We then apply these to game dev and see what the looks like (not great to be honest). I had another problem with audio - seems I had a setting wrong on my mic software and so it sounds a bit weird in places. Or maybe I'm just a bit weird. For some reason the vid didn't scroll when I was going through Scrumban. Apologies. Please let me know what you would like covered in more detail and I'll find some production friends to come help out with answering your questions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:20 Scrumban 00:19:00 LESS 00:29:50 SAFe 00:40:45 Learning from both 00:42:00 Games Industry and the Joy of being Weird 00:50:06 (Miro) How do we know we are agile? 00:54:00 Where we stumble 01:14:00 Summary ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and all that malarkey. Comments are welcome, even rude ones. If you want to help, then please make contact at the website and help out! We welcome contributors. For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out: http://www.game-production.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ABOUT GAME PRODUCTION ACADEMY Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training. Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us. http://www.game-production.com FOLLOW US: https://www.game-production.com/

A couple of people who watched my Work Estimates video asked if I could go into more detail on roadmaps and the roadmapping process, so here it is! This uses real examples of high level roadmaps, product roadmaps, Dev/Tech roadmaps and explains what that all means. I spend quite a bit of time working through WHY you might want to use them and some of the better flows and takeouts from those exercises. I truly hope you find this useful. Apologies the audio quality needs a clean up and I only realised after uploading. Please let me know what you would like covered in more detail and I'll find some production friends to come help out with answering your questions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 00:00:00 Intro - Hard Skills for Producers 00:06:00 What is a Roadmap and why have one? 00:09:53 Developing a Roadmap and Plan 00:44:45 Helicopter View of your game and why it is so powerful 00:54:10 Phases recap and modern skew 01:00:00 Roadmaps development workflow example 01:07:40 Turning a Helicopter View into a Dev/Tech roadmap 01:16:15 What to do with it for feeding Team formation and plans 01:21:00 Summary and Thanks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and all that malarkey. Comments are welcome, even rude ones. If you want to help, then please make contact at the website and help out! We welcome contributors. For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out: http://www.game-production.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ABOUT GAME PRODUCTION ACADEMY Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training. Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us. http://www.game-production.com FOLLOW US: https://www.game-production.com/

Part 4 of Agile for Game Producers. Part One is here: https://youtu.be/eLSUnWZ1jUE Part Two is here: https://youtu.be/B-2BB6DW3hw Part Three is here: https://youtu.be/Qd-vtqHhLec I take a dramatic pause here to skip the agenda and talk about product management - both within and without the games industry. I cover other industry product management topics, agile product management, dual track agile and Continuous Discovery. Enjoy! Please let me know what you would like covered in more detail and I'll find some production friends to come help out with answering your questions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and all that malarkey. Comments are welcome, even rude ones. If you think you can do better then please make contact at the website and help out! We welcome contributors. For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out: http://www.game-production.com ABOUT GAME-PRODUCTION.COM Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training. Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us. http://www.game-production.com FOLLOW US: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gameproductioncommunity Website: https://www.game-production.com/

Liam has a go at answering an email query from Javiera around documentation: "I’m thinking what indie and mid size 40-100 ppl studios can do with general documentation across the organization, such as vital instructive documentation that would conceivably be used in onboarding ( bonus points for talking how onboarding can leveraged to fact check the accuracy of documentation), how to do decide the cadence of when documentation is needed and who is delegated ownership to maintain. Or another facet is HOW people go about assessing what to document , and who is responsible for it, or documentation templates/theory (ie Good to explicitly name intended audience of specific docs)." Please let me know what you would like covered in more detail and I'll find some production friends to come help out with answering your questions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:22 Personal Background & Other Industries 00:05:36 Agile Manifesto 00:07:50 Explicit Written Information 00:18:40 Implicit Unwritten Knowledge 00:22:25 A Small Dependencies Example 00:27:34 How do we manage it all? 00:46:00 Tech Authors / Writers 00:51:06 How we prioritise 00:55:58 Cadence - cycle time for refreshing docs 01:00:30 Templates - Living Design Doc example & Lifecycle 01:05:51 Building documentation into workflow 01:10:00 Summary ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and all that malarkey. Comments are welcome, even rude ones. If you want to help, then please make contact at the website and help out! We welcome contributors. For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out: http://www.game-production.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ABOUT GAME PRODUCTION ACADEMY Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training. Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us. http://www.game-production.com FOLLOW US: https://www.game-production.com/

An intimate chat about why we're all sent on the Agile love train, but then eventually fall out of love and end up believing we must have done something wrong. What if we didn't? What if Agile isn't enough when you try and apply it to the games industry? Let's find out! Part Two is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-2BB6DW3hw Please let me know what you would like covered in more detail and I'll find some production friends to come help out with answering your questions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 00:00:00 Intro and brief Agile History 00:07:00 Agile Manifesto - why it still matters 00:15:50 Agile Principles - over process.. 00:31:00 How much can be applied to game development? 00:35:25 Scrum - are you sure you're doing it right? 01:06:00 How game development adapts Scrum principles 01:16:20 Summary and what comes next ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and all that malarkey. Comments are welcome, even rude ones. If you want to help, then please make contact at the website and help out! We welcome contributors. For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out: http://www.game-production.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ABOUT GAME PRODUCTION ACADEMY Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training. Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us. http://www.game-production.com FOLLOW US: https://www.game-production.com/

A general chat around risk management for those involved in making video games. This is an introduction to the topic and is aimed at game producers. If you prefer the podcast version, you can find that here: https://www.game-production.com/podcast/episode/4a84cfa5/11-risk-management-for-game-producers Topics covered include: - Why should you take risks and issues more seriously when making a game? - What does risk management in the gaming world look like? - What are risks and issues anyway? - Why Risk and Issue logs are so useful - How to tie in to Leadership meetings to really make this all useful - Complexity of game making affecting risks/issues - Example of how plans change, dependencies arise, etc and how your log can track this and assist in planning - Producer accountability - Continuous improvement of you and your team(s) - Conversations, collaboration and transparency that arise for a positive approach to risk management - Following through and taking action: how this leads to gaining trust, faith and momentum Part 2 goes into more detail on actual risk and issue examples. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d9CSoy_z3w Part 3 is a walkthrough of generating a Risk and Issue Log that you can download and use/abuse at your leisure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PljB6IBZW2w&t=421s I mentioned some other articles on risk management for gaming. Here they are: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131309/risk_management_with_development_.php https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/191523/managing_risk_in_video_game_.php Please LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and all that malarkey. Comments are welcome, even rude ones. If you think you can do better then please make contact at the website and help out! We welcome contributors. For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out: http://www.game-production.com ABOUT GAME-PRODUCTION.COM Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training. Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us. http://www.game-production.com FOLLOW US: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gameproductioncommunity Website: https://www.game-production.com/