Retrospectives – The Team
Agile
in a Flash by Jeff Langr and Tim Ottinger (card #31)
> Set the stage: Get everyone
to speak. Agree on rules. Use a safety exercise.
> Gather data: Feelings are
legitimate data!
> Generate insights: “Why?”
Begin discussing how to do things differently.
> Decide what to do: Commit to
one to two action items or experiments.
> Close the retrospective:
Review the retrospective itself. Capture info. Thank all.
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Retrospectives are regular team
opportunities to reflect on our past performance and then commit to adapt. The
retrospective meeting is a great tool for managing continuous improvement, an
essential quality of “being agile.” These steps will help keep your meetings
running smoothly.
Start a retrospective meeting by
using a safety exercise that anonymously determines how comfortable everyone is
with speaking openly. Next gather data about what occurred over the last
relevant period (usually an iteration or release). Just the facts,
ma’am—prevent participants from predetermining solutions. The team can then
analyze the facts to uncover the underlying problem they must tackle.
Only then should they discuss
solutions and plan a course of action. By meeting end, the team must commit to
one or more concrete changes to how they work. These “change stories” require
acceptance criteria–specific goals to be met by a certain time. Consider using
SMART (Specific-Measurable-Attainable-Relevant-Time bound) goals to vet the
quality of a change story.
Accept a change story only if
measurements show it meets the acceptance criteria. In other words, track and
test it.
Absolutely read Agile
Retrospectives [DL06], which includes the meeting structure outlined here and
exercises to keep your meetings lively, sane, and useful.
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