Retrospective¶

Purpose¶

Retrospectives are an excellent opportunity for your agile team to evaluate itself and create a plan to address areas of improvement for the future. The retrospective embraces the ideal of continuous improvement - and protects against the pitfalls of complacency - by stepping outside the work cycle to reflect on the past:

The purpose of the retrospective meeting is to:

• Evaluate how the last sprint, iteration, or work item went, specifically around the team dynamic, processes, and tools.
• Articulate and stack rank the items that went well, and those items that did not.
• Create and implement a plan for improving the way the team does work.
  The retrospective provides a safe place to focus on introspection and adaptation. In order for retrospectives to be successful, there needs to be a supportive atmosphere that encourages (but doesn’t force) all team members to contribute.

The retrospective should be a positive, energizing experience for your team. It helps team members share important feedback, let go of frustrations, and work together to come up with solutions.

Retrospective Rules¶

Who: Every member should attend the retrospective, with the scrum master or other facilitator leading the discussion.

Note: It's encouraged for others outside of leadership to be scrum master or at least lead the retrospective every once in a while.

What:

• Create a short list of things that worked well and things that could be improved
• Prioritize this list by importance as a team
• Discuss ways and tactics to improve the top two items
• Create an action plan
• Be disciplined about executing the above point.

How to Run

1. Gather your team
   This first step sets your retrospective up for success. Make sure all the stakeholders have been invited. Especially the decision makers. It is also good practice to assign a facilitator to moderate the session. The moderator ensures that time is allocated to discuss everyone’s feedback. He/she also keeps track of the time and guides the conversation.

1. Create a space
   This refers to both a physical space where the retrospective can proceed uninterrupted as well as a metaphorical safe space for an open discussion. To make the most of the session, individuals should be aligned on the expectations in advance. The use of an online whiteboard is a great way to drive participation and democratize the conversation. It provides a perfect virtual space where everyone is free to add their ideas and not fear judgement.

1. Give everyone a voice
   It is the moderators responsibility to ensure everyone gets an equal opportunity to participate in the conversation and add their feedback. It is important that the loudest voices do not dominate the retrospective. Tackle each section of the Mad, Sad, Glad one by one and discuss all the feedback before moving to the next section.

1. Create a plan of action
   Following up on the ideas discussed and the issues raised can make or break a retrospective. Draw up a roadmap to achieve all the action points discussed. Make sure these are both time-bound and assigned to individuals who are then held accountable. This is the only way to drive change and long-term success.

Retrospective Prompts¶

Select one of the below prompts for the retrospective to uncover additional insights, encourage participation and keep it interesting.

1. Start / Stop / Continue: What the team should start doing, stop doing, and continue doing. Focus on ways to discontinue items in the "Stop" column.
2. More / less: What the team needs to do more and less of. Create a plan around how to tackle the top items in the "do less" list.
3. Glad / Sad / Mad: What made the team glad, sad, and mad. You guessed it, focus on the sad and mad lists and how to improve so there are only items in the glad column next time.

• The Mad, Sad, Glad technique takes a slightly different approach to running a retrospective. Using this technique, the team is encouraged to talk about what led to them feeling annoyed (mad), disappointed (sad) or satisfied (glad).

• This focus on human emotions is what makes this retrospective technique both unique and effective when it comes to surfacing feedback and driving change. The greatest strength of the Mad, Sad, Glad retrospective lies in simplicity as well as its focus on the emotional state of team members. It provides an opportunity for open conversations which could otherwise get swept under the rug. This is what makes it a great technique when it comes to improving morale or building rapport.

• Mad: What made you feel annoyed?
  This section focuses on processes that sapped productivity and led individuals to feel frustrated. This could include anything that held back performance or team success. Use this section to highlight opportunities for improvement. What can the other members do to prevent similar feelings of annoyance in the future? What could you do better in your next sprint?

• Sad: What caused feelings of disappointment?
  For this section it’s important to remember that feelings of disappointment are caused primarily when there’s a mismatch between expectations and reality. What were these expectations that were not met? How can the team help you meet these expectations in the next sprint? Chalk out a plan for how to achieve alignment on goals and expectations.

• Glad: What made you happy?
  Use this section to highlight everything that led to feelings of satisfaction. It could be a helpful colleague, a new task management tool or even a new vending machine in the cafeteria! This section is all about good vibes and showing love where it’s deserved! Give every member the opportunity to talk about what gets them out of bed in the morning and excited to come to work.

Run the Retrospective in Miro so that all members can participate. If everyone is in person you can also use a large whiteboard.