The only way to find out is to be in tune with your team and the work they’re doing. Maybe they have just had a hectic series of sprints, and they need to celebrate their wins and not change anything. With these answers in hand, you can start to put together a picture of what the team needs: maybe there are big trust gaps in the team that need to be addressed, or maybe they’re lacking resources. Are they a new team still finding their rhythm?.How is the level of trust? Have they lost trust in each other or is there a lack of trust between the team and the product owner?. Is there a specific issue that they are grappling with?.If you’re the Scrum Master, ask yourself: They should be looking closely at how the team works together and any difficulties they’re having. The facilitator, coach, or Scrum Master should observe and pay attention during the sprint, project, or whatever cadence the team has. Recommended for you: Take an online course on Facilitating Retrospectives Tailor your retro to your team’s needsĪ generic retro structure can be a good start, but if you want to make meaningful improvements you need to make sure you understand the specific needs of your team. Your retrospectives won’t always need to include all five stages, but this is an excellent base-line and makes for a good starting point. Close: Appreciate people’s time and get feedback on how to improve your retros in future.Decide what to do: Make sure the team decides what’s most important together.Generate Insights: Unpack the data and analyse or look for the root causes.Gather Data: Get the viewpoints of all members of the team so that you can create a shared picture of what is happening.Set the Stage: Understand where everyone is coming from today.Embrace the five stages of a successful retrospectiveĭiana Larsen and Esther Derby’s book Agile Retrospectives – Making Good Teams Great lays out five stages of a successful retro. Here are our 11 top tips to make your retros successful. There are some simple changes you can introduce to vastly improve your retrospectives. If meetings aren’t adding value and actively driving change within the team and the organisation, they aren’t achieving what they set out to achieve, and they need to be stopped or changed. If people stop engaging in the meeting and feel that their time is being wasted, then it probably is. Actions aren’t always followed through effectively, resulting in a sort of Groundhog Day experience that can be very frustrating for all involved. While this makes sense on the surface level, when you look a little closer you often find the same strengths and weaknesses emerging every time. Often, half the people in the retro aren’t really engaged, and some are on their phones. They make lists and group the topics together. The Scrum Master throws some pens and some sticky notes on the table, and the team writes down what went well and what can be improved. Many retrospectives follow the same formula: the team is all gathered in a room around a small table. This is why it is so crucial to get them right. Team retros can be a place for learning, problem solving, or having fun and motivating each other. They can be a place to build and enable teams, or to help teams start their journey from the best possible place. When done correctly, retrospectives can be a catalyst for organisational change as well as team change. The aim of a retrospective is to look closely at the processes and products produced during a sprint, discuss these as a team, and decide on a way forward together to drive constant improvement.Ī retrospective is also known as a Scrum retrospective, retrospective meeting, a sprint retrospective, or simply a retro. What is a retrospective?Ī retrospective is a meeting held for the purpose of reflecting on the product development or workflow process. Here are 11 ways to ensure your retrospectives are successful. A retrospective provides the opportunity to look back on the sprint you’ve just completed and make plans to improve in the future. This helps you to constantly iterate and improve your output, methods, processes, and product. Possibly the most important part of your Agile journey is your ability to inspect and adapt. By Joanne Perold OctoScrum Master Leave a comment
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