The drive to inspect and adapt is one of the most important aspects of agile software development. A great way to bake this approach into your process is by having regular retrospective meetings that engage and challenge the team to solve their own problems and make things better. However, these meetings can be difficult to run well and drive improvement. In fact, many teams sleepwalk through sessions, treating them as a box-ticking exercise that signals the end of the iteration. Maybe its time we tried a bit harder to make retrospective meetings work? In this talk, Chris explains how to put together an awesome sprint retrospective. He discusses the following: * Why retrospectives can be unpopular * Structuring the meeting to succeed * Setting the right tone * Activities to gather data * Activities to generate insights * How to decide what to do * How to manage retrospective actions

1. The Art of the
Retrospective
Chris Smith
Project Manager, Red Gate
@cj_smithy

2. Introductions

3. Introductions

4. What is a Retrospective Meeting?
“Special meeting that takes place at the end of a
period of work – usually an iteration or software
release.
In a retrospective, a team steps back, examines
the way they work, analyses and identifies ways
they can improve”
Esther Derby

5. Inspect and adapt
We will always
know more
than we know
here
Retrospective
Retrospective
Retrospective
Retrospective
Retrospective

6. Sprint Retrospectives
Retrospective
Retrospective
Retrospective
Retrospective
Retrospective

7. Retrospectives can be perfunctory

8. Retrospectives can be ineffective
Habitual thinking
Lack of focus
Lack of participation
No end product

9. So… Retrospectives can be unpopular

10. So… Retrospectives can be unpopular
My team are literally allergic to the word
‘Retrospective’

11. So… Retrospectives can be unpopular
My team talk to each other and we fix things
when they come up (you idiot)

12. So… Retrospectives can be unpopular
My team/project is special because [reason], so
we don’t do retrospectives

13. So… Retrospectives can be unpopular
Let’s not bother
Or worse
Let’s continue ticking the box

14. Retrospectives can be awesome
Continuously improve
Respond to change
Think creatively
Happier team

15. I am not a hero

16. How do you run an effective and
engaging Sprint Retrospective?

17. References
Agile Retrospectives: Making Good
Teams Great (Derby and Larsen)
Gamestorming: A Playbook for
Innovators, Rulebreakers, and
Changemakers (Gray, Brown and
Macanufo)

18. How do you run an effective and
engaging Sprint Retrospective?
• Prepare well
• Deliberately facilitate
• Keep to Retrospective Framework
• Vary retrospective activities
• Track actions

19. Be prepared
Invest time
• More in = more out
• 2x meeting length

20. Be prepared
Decide
• Focus
• Duration
• Agenda
• Plans A & B

21. Be prepared
Gather
• Materials
• Snacks
• Help
• People

22. Facilitate
Be deliberate…
• Clear
• Confident
• Aware
• Don’t contribute (too much)

23. Retrospective
framework
• Set the stage
• Gather data
• Generate insights
• Decide what to do
• Close the
retrospective

24. Structuring a retrospective

25. Activities
(or “Games”)
• Share information
• Encourage
participation
• Encourage
collaboration
• Encourage creative
thinking
• Move things forward

26. Set the stage

27. Set the stage
Agree a ‘Goldilocks’ goal

28. Set the stage
Agree a ‘Goldilocks’ goal
Agree mind-set

29. Set the stage
Agree a ‘Goldilocks’ goal
Agree mind-set
Hear everyone’s voice

30. Set the stage: Check-in
Everyone answers a question
in one or two words:
“How was the sprint for you?”
“What is on your mind right now?”
“What are your hopes for
this retrospective?”

31. In one or two words…
How has Agile Cambridge 2013 been
for you?

32. Set the stage: Other activities
• Focus On/Focus Off
• Explorer, Shopper, Vacationer,
Prisoner

33. Gather data

34. Gather data
Generate shared memory
Observations not evaluations
Open up space to explore later

35. Gather data: Team Poll
Measure Satisfaction with Teamwork, Quality,
Engineering, ???

36. Gather data: Pair Interviews
• Pose a question like “What were the high and
low points of this sprint?”
• Pair-up, each person to interview the other
• Not a conversation; encourage interviewees to
keep to the role
• Report back

37. Gather data: Other activities
• Timeline
• Short Subjects
– Mad/Sad/Glad
– Stop/Start/Continue
• Learning Matrix
• Like to Like card game

38. Generate insights

39. Generate insights
Explore, interpret, analyse the data
Look for patterns and themes
Think creatively

40. Generate insights:
Fishbone Diagram

41. Generate insights:
Fishbone Diagram

42. Generate insights:
Challenge Cards
Two Teams
• Challenge Team brainstorms
potential problems
• Solution Team brainstorms
features and strengths of the
team

43. Generate insights:
Challenge Cards
To Play:
• Challenge Team plays a card, solution team
picks a card that addresses the challenge
• Winner decided and points awarded
• If there is no solution, team designs a new
solution card together

44. Generate insights:
Challenge Cards

45. • Each person has paper divided into ~4 sections
• Idea added in 1st section
• Paper passed to next person who builds on idea
Generate insights: Brainwriting

46. Generate insights:
Mission Impossible
• Take an existing challenge/goal and change a
fundamental aspect that makes it seem
impossible
– “How do we remove all our technical debt… in a day?”
– “How do we add a feature… without writing code?”
• Brainstorm
• Ask “Which of these ideas would be worth
actually trying?”

47. Gather data & Generate insights:
Mission Impossible

48. Generate Insights: Other activities
• Five Whys
• Force Field Analysis
• Flip it
• De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats
• Anti-problem
• Speedboat
• Pre-Mortem

49. Decide what to do

50. Decide what to do
Move toward conclusions
Focus on improvement
Identify 2-5 actions

51. Decide what to do: Prioritize
Activities to prioritize:
• Dot voting
• £100 Test
• Absolute order

52. Decide what to do: Create actions
Actions are return on investment
Ask:
• “Can ‘we’ achieve this?”
• “What does success look like?”
• “What’s the first step?”
• “Who is going to own this?”

53. Decide what to do: Create actions
Not sure exactly what to tackle?
Arrange an experiment

54. Decide what to do: Create actions
Team seems unsure or noncommittal?
Measure with ‘Five-Fingered Consensus’

55. Close the retrospective

56. Close the retrospective
Find out how the meeting went
What worked?
What didn’t?

57. Close the retrospective:
Feedback wall

58. Structuring a retrospective

59. Tracking actions
• Recorded
• In your face
• Reviewed
• Celebrated
• Disposable

60. How do you run an effective and
engaging Sprint Retrospective?
• Prepare well
• Deliberately facilitate
• Keep to Retrospective Framework
• Vary retrospective activities
• Track actions

61. References
Agile Retrospectives: Making Good
Teams Great (Derby and Larsen)
Gamestorming: A Playbook for
Innovators, Rulebreakers, and
Changemakers (Gray, Brown and
Macanufo)
Agile Retrospective Resource Wiki
@cj_smithy

62. Questions?
?
@cj_smithy