Retrospectives Gone BadA Totally Scientific Perspective

Mark Levison – Trying to be

Agile for over 20 years

https://agilepainrelief.com/

Yes we have a book –at least it’s free ☺Guide to Effective Retrospectives

https://agilepainrelief.com/guide-to-effective-agile-retrospectives

Ask questions in the chat as we go.

Totally Science Based

Data source #1: Twitter Survey

#Retrospectives gone bad - what are your top reasons?

Data source #2: LinkedIn Survey

What are your top reasons for #Bad #Failed Retrospectives

We need our own polls

• Join at www.menti.com 2026 3287

• Please ignore menti Q&A function I will only see Zoom

Mentimeter - Interactive Presentations

Data source #3: random comments from friends

• Not solving real root causes. Just swatting at flies each Sprint. – John Miller

• The Product Owner, Scrum Master, Team Lead or manager dictating the topics of discussion and the solutions. – Alan Daley

• Teams conclude they have no influence on (let alone direction for) continuous improvement… - Greg Tutunjian

• Lack of commitment, consequence, and follow-through – Joseph Pelrine

Your Retro Pain Points

The Epic 2 by Rafael Krux Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5384-the-epic-2-

• Flip screen to display

Top 10 Retrospective Sins

Based on Years of Experience

Boring, Repetitive

All Talk, No Action

Action

Wishful Thinking

• Aka: Vague Actions or Improvements

Failure to Review Past Improvements

Last Month’s Improvements

Heroes

Perennial Problems

Managers in the Room

Rushed Retro

The Dominator

Other Reasons?

• Share in the chat

The CureOr Improvements

Establish Simple Ground Rules with the Team

Respect self and others

Silence is okay

Parking Lot is our friend

Explain your reasoning and intent

Systemic Fixes over Quick Fixes

• Sailboat Retro picture

Switch it up

Concrete Actions

• Long term [Goal] now [Action]

[Reduce Average Cycle Time getting Development to “Done” sooner]

to a [Limit the Work in the “Development in Progress” column to 4 items at a time]

Grow Facilitation Skills

Decision Making

Protocols

Another Decision-Making Tool

Actions In Sprint

Ladder of Inference

Get Real Data

Morale is Data

Experiments Trump Actions

Review Your Experiments

No Magic

References

Retrospectives

• Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great by Diana Larsen and Esther Derby

• The Retrospective Handbook - A guide for agile teams by Patrick Kau

• FunRetrospectives: activities and ideas for making agile retrospectives more engaging by Taina Caetano and

Paulo Caroli

• Fifty Quick Ideas To Improve Your Retrospectives by Ben Williams and Tom Roden

• Retrospectives for everyone – Powerful metaphors for effective retrospectives by Madhavi Ledalla. Most

interesting and invigorating list of activities I’ve seen in a while.

More References

Facilitation

• Collaboration Explained: Facilitation Skills for Software Project Leaders by Jean Tabaka

• Facilitators Guide to Participatory Decision-Making by Sam Kaner

• "The Ultimate Guide to Agile Retrospectives: Facilitating Open Discussion” by Retrium(online source)

Metrics

• Software Development Metrics by David Nicolette

• Actionable Agile Metrics by Daniel Vacanti

• When Will It be Done? by Daniel Vacanti

Yet more references

• Improvement Stories: https://innovel.net/improve-measurably-with-improvement-stories/

• A3 Experiment Template:https://www.agendashift.com/resources/experiment-a3

• World’s Largest Agile reference library: https://agilepainrelief.com/scrummaster-resources-and-references migrating to https://agilepainrelief.com/glossary

Want More? Download the Free eBook

New Guide to Effective Retrospectives

https://agilepainrelief.com/guide-to-effective-agile-retrospectives

(so new the paint is barely dry)