the presentation I used in AgileBrazil 2012. On it you can find many activities for Agile retrospectives. This presentation was used my me (Paulo caroli) to remember which activity to share next.

1. Agile Retrospective Activities
Paulo Caroli
agileretroactivities.blogspot.com
Paulo Caroli Agile Coach
pcaroli@thoughtworks.com
Twitter: @paulocaroli

2. Agenda
• Typical Retrospective Agenda
• Many activities
• Q&A

3. Typical Retrospective Agenda
• Ice breaker
• Set the context Opening
• Prime directive
• Group participation
• Data gathering
• Data grouping Middle
• Selecting notes to talk about
• Conversation
• Action Items Closing
• Next steps

4. Zip Zap Zoom

5. Ping Pong

6. Setting the context

7. Prime Directive
9/18/2012

8. The Prime Directive
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.

9. Creating Safety

10. ESVP activity

11. ESVP Activity
– Explorer
• eager to learn new ideas and insights
– Shoppers
• will look over all the information and will be happy to go
how with a new idea
– Vacationer
• Are not interested in the work, but are happy to be away
from the daily grind
– Prisoner
• Fell like have been forced to attend

12. Well, Not so well, Puzzle

13. Happiness Radar

14. Starfish
A data gathering activity to foster the
thinking around practices and the value
the team get from it.
Retrospective activities
Paulo Caroli

15. Activities before
• Ice breaker
• Group participation
• Context setting

16. 16

17. The Starfish
• The starfish divides the board into 5 areas

18. 18

19. Keep Doing
• What are the good things you like?
• Think about things you would miss if they
were removed; a particular practice,
technique, technology, person, role, etc.
• An example: Running tests locally before
committing (This prevented me from breaking
the build and delaying the branch cut).

20. Less Of
• What are practices that might need a bit
more refining--or reduction--in the current
circumstance?
• Think about things that do add value, but
would be better with a little less.
• An example: Stand ups have become status
meetings and so there should be less of
talking to one person (and more of talking to
each other) during them.

21. More Of
• What are the things that you want to try
more?
• Think about things you believe are not
necessarily taking full advantage of.
• A good example is that maybe people are pair
programming but knowledge transfer might
be gained by doing more of swapping
programming partners.

22. Stop Doing
• What is not adding much value?
• Think about things you believe are not useful
anymore.
• An example: Perhaps writing status reporting
email at the end of the day (because now the
team is using an awesome tool which already
conveys the current status information)

23. Start Doing
• What are the new things that you want to try?
• Think about new things you want to suggest.
• An example: Tracking lead time (I read an
article about it and believe would provide us
precious information regarding process
improvement)

24. Taking notes
• Please use one post it per note
• Consider using different post it colors for
notes:
– Team inward (things within our team boundaries)
– Team outward (things beyond our team
boundaries)

25. Activities to follow
• data grouping
• selecting notes to talk about
• targeted conversation based on data
• creating action itens

26. Up, Down, Ideas and Awards

28. The quadrants
• Thumbs up – things you like
• Thumbs down – things you dislike
• Award– appreciations/thank-yous
• Light bulbs – ideas/new things to try

29. Activities to follow
• selecting notes to talk about
• targeted conversation based on data
• creating action itens

30. Timeline activity
An activity for data gathering for
given period.

31. Building the Timeline
• Please draw a timeline on a large area (e.g.
whiteboard)

32. Timeline
timeline
32

33. Building the Timeline
• Decide the timeline start and end (e.g. 05 Jan–
Inception Start; 12 Dec – 10 days after Prod)
• Add a few noticeable events (e.g. New team
members arrival, release 1, release 2)

34. Timeline
Timeline Timeline
Start Event A Event B Event C End
timeline
34

35. Building the Timeline
• Split the timeline into a areas (2 to 4
recommended), and decide upon the areas
(e.g. People, process, technology, other)

36. People
Process
Tool
/ tech
Other
Timeline Timeline
Start Event A Event B Event C End
timeline
36

37. Building the Timeline
• Decide upon post it colors for the notes (e.g.
Green for well, pink for not so well)
• Use another color for action items (e.g. Yellow
for action items)

38. Timeline activity instrctions
• Use one post it for each note
• Follow the color code
• Place the note on the area according to the
timelime (e.g. A green post it “New load
balance server” is added on the Technology
area around Release2 timeline)
• Timebox the activity (10 minutes
recommended)

39. Activities to follow
• data grouping
• selecting notes to talk about
• targeted reasoning based on data

40. Open the box
A data gathering activity which foster
innovation and challenges the current
activities performed by the team.
Retrospective activities
Paulo Caroli

41. “The world as we have created it is a process of
our thinking. It cannot be changed without
changing our thinking.” ― Albert Einstein
“They always say time changes things, but you
actually have to change them yourself.” ―
Andy Warhol

42. Inside this box are all activities
performed by the team

43. Please open the box…

44. Which activities should
be removed from it?

45. Which activities should be added?

46. What to recycle?

48. Taking notes
• Please use one post it per note
• Use the different post it colors for notes
related to:
– process
– tools and technology
– Other
• Timing: 10 minutes or less

49. Next step:
validating changes
• Executing ideas is often tougher than
generating them.
• How should we test ideas quickly and cheaply,
so that we can afford to experiment?
• Please go back to your notes and add new
post –its (please use a new color) describing
how to test the idea execution.

50. Activities to follow
• data grouping
• voting
• selecting notes to talk about
• targeted conversation based on data
• creating action itens

51. Smiley Calendar Average
9/18/2012

52. 52

53. Smiley Calendar Average
Please go back on time and imagine
your Smiley Calendar for each day
since last Retrospective...

54. Smiley Calendar Average
4
I was always Smiling!
3
2
1 Somewhere in between…
0
I don’t remember smiling at all

55. Smiley Calendar Average
Please add a mark next to the smiley
average line

56. Activities to follow
• Smiley faces data gathering
• Guided conversation on Smiley faces

57. Smiley Calendar data gathering
9/18/2012

58. Activities before
• Ice breaker
• Group participation
• Context setting
• Prime directive
• Smiley Calendar Average (mandatory)

59. 59

60. Smiley Calendar Average
Now, let’s dig into our mood
variation and the reasons for it

61. Smiley Calendar data gathering
Even though you might not
remember every single day, please
tell us the happenings that got you
either very ☺ or very

62. Smiley Calendar Data Gathering
Timeline Timeline
Start Ends
timeline

63. Activities to follow
• data grouping
• selecting notes to talk about
• targeted reasoning based on data
• looking for action items

64. Guided conversations
on smiley faces
9/18/2012

65. Activities before
• Ice breaker
• Group participation
• Context setting
• Prime directive
• Smiley Calendar Average (mandatory)

66. Smiley Calendar Average
4
I was always Smiling!
3
2
1 Somewhere in between…
0
I don’t remember smiling at all

67. Guided conversation
Now, let’s think about the future...

68. Guided conversation
What are the things that will keep you
☺?
What will you do different in order to
avoid a face?

69. Activity instructions
• Open conversation
• Timebox the activity (10 minutes
recommended)

70. Activities to follow
• sharing the notes
• looking for action items

71. Hot air balloon
A data gathering activity which focus on
things impacting the team ability to go
faster
Retrospective activities
Paulo Caroli

72. Activities before
• Ice breaker
• Group participation
• Context setting

74. The Balloon
• The balloon represents the team cruising
along the project.
• Let’s split the board into 3 areas

75. Fuel
Bad weather
Sandbag

76. Fuel
• What is the fuel for our balloon?
• The things that will help our balloon goes
higher and faster

77. Sandbag and ropes
• What is slowing down our balloon?
• The things that keep us from going faster

78. Bad weather
• What would be the bad weather ahead?
• The things that would put our journey at risk

79. Fuel
Bad weather
Sandbag

80. Taking notes
• Please use one post it per note
• Use the different post it colors for notes
related to:
– people
– process
– tools and technology
– other

81. Activities to follow
• data grouping
• selecting notes to talk about
• targeted conversation based on data
• creating action itens

82. Plan of Action
82

83. • Long-term goal: Have test automation on
acceptance-test level
• Now-Action: Pete will automate one test
using Fit
83

84. Speed Car - Abyss
retrospective exercise
9/18/2012

85. 85

86. Six Thinking Hat
Edward de Bono

87. Six Thinking Hats is a thinking tool
for group discussion, it provides a
means for groups to think
together more effectively, and a
means to plan thinking processes
in a detailed and cohesive way.

88. Red hat – Feelings & Emotions
• Focuses on feelings, hunches, gut instinct, and
intuition

89. White hat – Facts & Information
• Focus on data, facts, information know of
needed

90. Black hat – Critical Judgment
• Focuses on difficulties, potential problems.
Why something may not work.

91. Green hat – Alternatives and learning
• Focuses on creativity, possibilities,
alternatives, solutions, new ideas.

92. The 4 quadrants
(planning vs success)
activity
for lessons learned
92

93. Planned Unintended,
and but
successful successful
Planned failed
but and
failed not planned
93

94. ROI

95. Agile Retrospective Activities
Questions?
Thank you!
Feedback please: @paulocaroli
agileretroactivities.blogspot.com
Paulo Caroli Agile Coach
pcaroli@thoughtworks.com
Twitter: @paulocaroli