Using sprint "retrospectives" to improve team sprint over sprint.
Have you been asked to organize a retrospective for your team, but you’re not sure where to begin? Have you been a participant and want to get more out of retrospective discussions?
What is a retrospective?
A retrospective is an activity where individuals reflect by reviewing what recently occurred, how it occurred, what are some strengths or positives requiring sustaining actions, and what are some negatives or weaknesses requiring changes. By bringing awareness and attention, a retrospective allows individuals to learn from past actions and make changes for the future.
How to run a sprint retrospective?
Block off 1 hr max for the meeting at the end of a sprint, before the next sprint planning meeting and invite all sprint team members.
Select an event location, collect materials (pens&Post-It or dry erase marker on whiteboard). Best to use several different color Post-It notes, which will make organization easier.
At the beginning of the meeting, appoint one person as the note taker/time keeper.
As the facilitator, introduce the sprint team to the purpose of the sprint retrospective: introspection, identification, and continuous improvement. Make sure to highlight that this is a trusted space for the team to reflect, share, and discuss.
Give everyone Post-It notes and pens. Ask each person to write something that “Went Well” and “Didn't Go Well” in the last sprint regarding people, process, tools. Ensure each idea is on a separate post-it.
Starting with "Went Well", have each individual talk about what and why wrote it. As the speaker is talking, the facilitator should think about how to group related topics together. After the speaker is done, ask him or her to put it up on a wall or board.
Repeat for “Didn't Go Well".
Review the major themes from "Went Well" and "Didn't Go Well" to identify specific actions to continue and/or actions to change/improvement ideas.
End thanking everyone and ask the note taker to document and share.
Sample Retrospective Note Template
Principles for Good Retrospectives
Use pen&Post-It notes or dry eraser marker and a white board as facilitation for in-person retrospectives. Easier, faster, and when it’s all done, take a photo. The note taker will thank you for not having to retype everything.
Ask individuals to write independently, to reduce groupthink. Another reason pen&Post-It is preferred over dry eraser marker because asking each individual has to write something down first before looking at others.
If/When a person can’t think of “Didn’t Go Well”, don’t let the person off so easily. It’s even better if the person wrote a statement, “I don’t think there’s anywhere we should spend time/energy improving.”
Facilitator should ensure action items identified are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely) For example, an improvement item of "more documentation" is very not specific. In this case, ask questions such as What kind of documentation? Who will create it? What information do we need to capture? How will we know it's done? When will it be done? Do we have the time and resources to do it? Note taker must document the action item and associated owner(s).
Have less than 4 action items. Small iteration and changes is better than a large list of action items that never get done.
The facilitator has to complete more preparatory work for retrospective held for long duration projects (i.e., 3+ weeks). People on the project won’t remember everything and will always focus on the most recent 2-3 week period for a 6 month project. Thus, the facilitator will need to summarize project trends, identify findings, invite more participants, etc. The above format do not work as well for such project retrospectives.