A Better Retrospective

This was an action pending on me, where I brought in a few restructuring in the retrospective format. Still miles to go :-)

From the earlier discussion, one important point I noticed was a lack of proper structure, to the way retrospectives were happening. [PS: I always believed there was a structure, but my team members thought the other way – it is always better change the way you perceive, especially when the majority is on the other side :-)]

What I did was to make the structure more explicit with a diagram and explain it to my team members. Below is the diagram I prepared. [Reference: Agile Retrospectives - Making Good Teams Great by Esther Derby, Diana Larsen]

Setting the stage:

I briefly explained the team members on what each item meant, to ensure that each member in the team is on the same page and then we started with our retrospective.

Gather the data:

We presented the data for last couple of sprints. Once this was done we split into 4 separate teams (we were 16 of us).

Now it was the turn of each teams to discuss and come up with top points on what worked and what did not.

Generate insights:

Each team presented their summary with high level views on why they thought so. We requested each team to explain when things were not very clear.

Decide what to do:

Once all points were explained in detail, we started picking up the items and decided what action needs to be taken for each item.

Close the retrospective:

Before we closed, we checked back on actions from earlier retrospectives.

[PS: By this time, one of my team members indicated that they are too hungry and this is one focus point in forthcoming retrospectives i.e. to reduce the time taken for retrospection.