Retrospectives

If you have one agile meeting, make it the retro!

As described in the Scrum Guide (http://Scrum.org ), the purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to plan ways to increase quality and effectiveness.

The Team inspects how the last Sprint went with regard to individuals, interactions, processes, tools, and their Definition of Done. Inspected elements often vary with the domain of work. Assumptions that led them astray are identified, and their origins explored. The Team discusses what went well during the Sprint, what problems it encountered, and how those problems were (or were not) solved.

The Team identifies the most helpful changes to improve its effectiveness. The most impactful improvements are addressed as soon as possible. They may even be added to the Sprint Backlog for the next Sprint.

The most important component of a productive retro is establishing a collaborative culture with the team. This is often expressed using the “prime directive” of retrospectives:

"Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand."

--Norm Kerth, Project Retrospectives: A Handbook for Team Review

These sentiments echo the findings of Tuckman’s stages of group development, where the best teams understand other team members' strengths and weaknesses while feeling supported and recognized.

The Harvard Business Review suggests eight guidelines that can help establish a collaborative environment:

• State views and ask genuine questions. This enables the team to shift from monologues and arguments to a conversation in which members can understand everyone’s point of view and be curious about the differences in their views.

• Share all relevant information. This enables the team to develop a comprehensive, common set of information with which to solve problems and make decisions.

• Use specific examples and agree on what important words mean. This ensures that all team members are using the same words to mean the same thing.

• Explain reasoning and intent. This enables members to understand how others reached their conclusions and see where team members’ reasoning differs.

• Focus on interests, not positions. By moving from arguing about solutions to identifying needs that must be met in order to solve a problem, you reduce unproductive conflict and increase your ability to develop solutions that the full team is committed to.

• Test assumptions and inferences. This ensures that the team is making decisions with valid information rather than with members’ private stories about what other team members believe and what their motives are.

• Jointly design next steps. This ensures that everyone is committed to moving forward together as a team.

• Discuss undiscussable issues. This ensures that the team addresses the important but undiscussed issues that are hindering its results and that can only be resolved in a team meeting.

As teams enter the Tuckman’s “performing” phase, more direct questions can be asked. Instead of start/stop/continue doing, the more direct questions like:

• “What went well” and

• “What to improve”

can be used.

1. Copy the template and change the date: 0000-00-00 RetroPreview

2. Add the results of the sprint (velocity, outcomes, WIP)