Amusement devices: games – Board games – pieces – or boards therefor
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-30
2001-05-29
Layno, Benjamin H. (Department: 3711)
Amusement devices: games
Board games, pieces, or boards therefor
C273S287000, C273S256000, C273S278000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06237915
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of board games. More specifically, the invention relates to board games used to teach business management skills. More particularly, the invention is related to games used to teach project management skills
2. Description of the Related Art
Board games have been used to teach various types of management skills, including business management and management of personal finances. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,737,167 issued to Kelley describes using a board game to teach personal decision-making skills. U.S. Pat. No. 3,765,682 issued to Braude describes using another board game to teach property investment management skills. U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,628 describes a board game used to train bank personnel. Still other games, such as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,386,778 issued to Hall, U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,792 issued to Anderson, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,473 issued to Whitney are used to teach various aspects of the construction business.
Management skills teaching and business strategy teaching games are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,354,684 issued to McKinley, U.S. Pat. No. 4,289,313 issued to Delamontagne, U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,135 issued to Campbell, U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,035 issued to Medina, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,878 issued to Kiyosaki et al.
Although many different aspects of management skills teaching are covered by games known in the art, a particular set of management skills is not directly addressed by management teaching games known in the art. Specifically, prior art management teaching games do not provide the players with the ability to make outcome-affecting decisions which are affected by risk, and more particularly how risk identification and mitigation can affect the overall value of a project. Broadly and generally defined, project management is the art (and/or science) of optimizing the scheduling and optimizing the allocation of physical and personnel (labor) resources to complete a complex task set. The object of the complex task set can be, for example, a construction project such as building new homes, commercial buildings or public roadways, or can be the development of a new product line for a company engaged in the business of selling products. Whatever the type of project, the most beneficial management of a project is generally believed to be that which causes the project to create the most value for the entities which invest in the project. Value is not strictly limited to return on invested capital, although it is an important measure, but may include numerous other characteristics such as numbers of customers, market share for a product, numbers of users, traffic congestion relieved (such as for public roadway projects).
It is desirable to have a game which teaches project management skills, and more particularly, teaches such project management skills in a way which trains the project participants to work on a project so as create the most value consistent with other project requirements. It is also desirable to have a game which teaches project management skills in a manner which accounts for real-world risk of task failure, and teaches the participants to deal with costs and benefits of identifying and mitigating risk.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One aspect of the invention is a game for teaching project management skills is disclosed. The game comprises a play space including an area to track progress of preselected project tasks. The preselected project tasks when completed constitute completion of a game project. The game includes indicators for amounts of work effort for workers assigned to the project tasks by the players, indicators for tracking the project tasks, and project funds. In one example, the workers assigned to project tasks incur a predetermined amount of project funds to be expended during each project time period. Another example includes indicators for time delay for completing the project tasks, and indicators for task errors. The game includes first information indicators for each project task, each of these stating a total work effort to complete the task, amounts of non-work effort project funds costs to complete the task, and in one particular example, an inherent delay time for each task and a minimum task completion time. The game includes second information indicators for identification and mitigation of a risk associated with the project tasks. Each second indicator provides first and second consequences comprising at least one of the following: additional work effort to complete the task, additional project funds cost for the task, delay in completing the task, and accumulation of additional errors in completing the task. The first consequences are incurred when a first probabilistic event occurs and the risk is mitigated by the players. The second consequences are incurred upon occurrence of a second probabilistic event when the risk is not mitigated. Occurrence of the first and second probabilistic events is determined by a random event generator, which in one example can be a dice roll.
In a particular embodiment of the invention, the value of the project is decremented by the number of errors accumulated. In one example of the invention, the project when completed has a nominal value for completion within a predetermined scheduled time and without errors.
Another aspect of the invention is a method of playing a game for teaching project management skills. The method comprises players scheduling and assigning project tasks from a predetermined set of tasks associated with a game project. The players initiate selected ones of the scheduled project tasks. The initiating includes assigning workers, and electing whether to mitigate a risk associated with each such task.
A project time period is incremented, causing commensurate progress on each initiated task. In one example embodiment the incrementing can also result in a corresponding reduction in an amount of an inherent time delay for each initiated task. The incrementing includes expending an amount of project funds based on a number of workers assigned to each task during each increment of the project time period. In one example, upon each task having all work effort necessary for completion, a random event generator is operated, and a consequence is determined. The consequence is based on whether the risk has been mitigated by the players and whether a probabilistic event occurs. If the risk has been mitigated, first consequences are incurred based on occurrence of a first probabilistic event. If the risk has not been mitigated, second consequences are incurred based on occurrence of a second probabilistic event. The occurrence of the probabilistic event is determined by the random event generator. In one example, the first consequences and second consequences include at least one of the following: additional time to complete the task or project, expenditure of additional project funds to complete the task or project, extra work effort to complete the task or project, and accumulation of additional errors.
The initiating, incrementing and determining are all repeated until all the tasks associated with the game project are completed. In one embodiment, the value of the project is then calculated. The value is decremented from an initial amount of value based on the number of errors accumulated. In one example, the number of errors is accumulated, in addition to those accumulated by the risk event, by an amount based on a number of project tasks in progress during each project time period.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3737167 (1973-06-01), Kelley
patent: 3765682 (1973-10-01), Braude
patent: 3850433 (1974-11-01), Purlia
patent: 4095799 (1978-06-01), Stringer
patent: 4150827 (1979-04-01), Barnett
patent: 4289313 (1981-09-01), Delamontagne
patent: 4354684 (1982-10-01), McKinley
patent: 4363628 (1982-12-01), Kirkpatrick et al.
patent: 4386778 (1983-06-01), Hall
patent: 4484748 (1984-11-01), Becze
patent: 4856788 (1989-08-01), Fischel
patent: 5071135 (1991-12-
Ledet Michelle R.
Ledet Winston J.
Ledet Winston P.
Maroulis Spiro M.
Layno Benjamin H.
Mendiratta Vishu K.
Practice Fields L.L.C.
Rosenthal & Osha L.L.P.
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