In this workshop, we will collaboratively build a Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline using a card game. Designing an efficient pipeline is a central challenge for modern software development teams. At the same time, pipelines form the technological and methodological foundation that enables agile projects to remain agile in the long term —avoiding stagnation and allowing iterative, incremental changes to be implemented in a lightweight manner.

The card game serves as a coaching tool, offering a way to gather diverse perspectives on a topic, discuss solution strategies without bias, and provide emotionally neutral prompts to question the status quo of a project. Participants engage in both direct exchange and competition with another group, which enables an implicit feasibility check, opens the space for critical questions, and initiates thought processes that can trigger a mindset shift in the spirit of continuous improvement. The exchange about the fictional pipeline inevitably reveals constraints in the participants’ real-world settings, sparking ideas for improvement.

Additionally, the game increases mutual understanding through the involvement of “non-technical” roles and creates a safe space for asking uncomfortable questions. Participants are divided into groups for the game. Each group is tasked with designing and building its own pipeline. In the final cross-group discussion, we explore the different approaches together.