The Art of the RetrospectiveGE Cambridge

Thursday, 20 February 2014

Chris Smith and Paul Stephenson

The Art of the RetrospectiveWhat can go wrong with sprint retrospectives and how to fix them

GE CambridgeThursday, 20 February 2014

Chris Smith and Paul Stephenson

Chris SmithProject Manager

Paul StephensonProject Manager

Introductions

What is a Retrospective Meeting?

“Special meeting that takes place at the end of a period of work – usually an iteration or software release.In a retrospective, a team steps back, examines the way they work, analyses and identifies ways they can improve” Esther Derby

ContinuousImpro

veme

nt

Inspect and adapt: What we develop

We will always know more

than we know here

ReleaseRelease

ReleaseRelease

Release

Inspect and adapt: How we work

We will always know more about how we work together on the project than we know

here

RetrospectiveRetrospective

RetrospectiveRetrospective

Retrospective

Retrospectives can be perfunctory

Retrospectives can be unpopular

Retrospectives can be unpopular

My team are literally allergic to the word ‘Retrospective’

Retrospectives can be unpopular

My team talk to each other and we fix things when they come up (you idiot)

Retrospectives can be unpopular

My team/project is special because [reason], so we don’t do retrospectives

So…

“Let’s not bother”or worse

“Let’s continue ticking the box”

Retrospectives can be transformative

Inspecting and adapting through

retrospectives

How do you run an effective and engaging Sprint Retrospective?

References

Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great (Derby and Larsen)

Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers (Gray, Brown and Macanufo)

How do you run an effective and engaging Sprint Retrospective?

• Prepare well• Deliberately facilitate• Keep to Retrospective Framework• Vary activities• Create good actions

Prepare Well

• Invest time• Decide focus &

agenda• Gather people,

help, materials, snacks

Deliberately Facilitate

• Clear & confident• Aware• Don’t contribute

(too much)

Keep to the Retrospective Framework

‘Heinz 57 Varieties’ by Pat C. Klein

Vary retrospective activities

Set the stage

Choose a ‘Goldilocks’ goal

Too closed Too open Just right

Find ways to improve our physical work environment?

Check-in

Everyone answers a question in one or two words:

How was the sprint for you?What is on your mind right now?

Activity

Check-in

How is your physical office environment?

Activity

Check-inActivity

Set the stage: Other activities

• Focus On/Focus Off• Explorer, Shopper, Vacationer,

Prisoner• Desert Island

Gather data

Pair Interviews

• Pair-up, each person to interview the other• Not a conversation; encourage interviewees to

keep to the role• Pose a question like “What were the high and

low points of this sprint?”• Report back

Activity

Activity

Pair Interviews

• Interview about satisfaction with physical work environment this year

• Interviewer, ask:– when the person felt most satisfied?– why was is satisfying?– when the person felt least satisfied?– why was is dissatisfying?

• Three minutes to interview, then we swap

Activity

Activity

Other activities to gather data

• Team Poll• Timeline• Short Subjects– Mad/Sad/Glad– Stop/Start/Continue

• Learning Matrix• Like to Like card game

Generate insights

Mission Impossible

Take an existing challenge/goal and change a fundamental aspect that makes it seem impossible

Activity

“How do we remove all our technical debt… in a day?”“How do we add a feature… without writing any code?”

Mission Impossible

How do we turn your office into the perfect environment…

in 24 hours?

Activity

Other activities to generate insights

• Fishbone diagram• Force Field Analysis• Challenge Cards• De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats• Flip it• Anti-problem• Pre-Mortem

Decide what to do

• Each person has paper divided into ~4 sections• Idea added in 1st section • Paper passed to next person who builds on idea

Brain-writingActivity

Given what you have heard and seen, what should you do?

Brain-writingActivity

Prioritize what to do

Activities to prioritize:• Dot voting• £100 Test• Absolute order• Personal commitment

Action creation tips

Not sure exactly what to tackle?Arrange an experiment

Action creation tips

Not sure how to make a mind-set or direction change actually happen?Introduce an artefact or activity

Action creation tips

Team seems unsure or noncommittal?Measure with ‘Five-Fingered Consensus’

Close the retrospective

Close the retrospective: Feedback wall

Activity

Structuring a retrospective

How do you run an effective and engaging Sprint Retrospective?

• Prepare well• Deliberately facilitate• Keep to Retrospective Framework• Vary activities• Create good actions

ReferencesAgile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great (Derby and Larsen)

Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers (Gray, Brown and Macanufo)

http://www.plans-for-retrospectives.com/http://retrospectivewiki.org/

Questions?

?@cj_smithychris.smith@red-gate.com