Purpose: Opportunity for learning, improving the product quality and team effectiveness by inspecting the current sprint execution (planned vs achieved commitments, values, and goals)
Attendees: Scrum/Agile Team, SM, and ideally PO, to maintain a safe environment for the team. However, other stakeholders can be invited by the team request
Facilitator: SM
Preparation:
The facilitator selects a retrospective technique to address the challenges experienced by the team during the sprint
The facilitator collectsobjective facts: data, metrics, observations
Meeting Flow
Get the participants focus on the activity
Gather the facts from the iteration: Data, metrics, objective observations
Define the problems to be addressed
Understand the root causes of the problems
Find solutions to the problem
Determine an action plan
Recommended Practices
Instill a safe environment for dialogue by sharing the Prime Directive “everyone did his best - no blame” + Las Vegas Rule
Start with an icebreaker to provide focus and outline the goals of the activity
Revisit the actionable improvement plan from last retrospective
Gather the facts from the current iteration (objective observation from team members, team member behaviors, work process, tools, Burndown, Sprint Report, Velocity Chart, CFD, …)
Make groups/clusters of similar statements
Define the core problem by adding problem statements as header on each of the groups
Prioritize the list of problems with, for example, a dot-voting activity
Understand the problem to solve by investigating the root causes with, for example, the 5 WHY, Fishbone Diagram, Pareto Analysis, ...
Find solutions for each root cause
Determine an action plan: Stories are added to the backlog to address the improvement, who is responsible/owner, and how success will be measured
Close out: Recap with highlights and takeaways from the activity
Attendees: Meaghan Hudak (SM), Rob Fay, Chelsea Brigg, Amy Castellani, Brian Flaherty
A team member mentioned extending the retro invite to other external stakeholders for transparency.
The retro is an activity exclusively for the internal team including SM and PO so that team members feel safe enough to engage, speak up, and discuss their opportunities for improvements.
SM did a good job kicking off and explaining the activity and the timebox for collecting the facts from the iteration. (12) mins were allocated for exercise and additional time for dot votes/ grouping
SM could have reminded the team when the timebox is at 50%, and 10% remaining. However, the SM asked if more time is needed near the end of the timebox.
SM did not share the facts from the iteration such as the Burndown Chart, Velocity Chart, or CFD
The status of action items from the last retrospective was not discussed. Are the previous action items in to do, in progress, done?
SM should clarify the criteria before each subsequence activity: for example criteria for grouping or voting before the activity is started. However, it get clarify when a team member asked the question
The tickets were discussed per priority of the vote (tickets with high votes were discussed first). However, there were good discussions but the opportunities to capture the action items were missed. EX: Discussion about confusing guidance from CMS leadership, internal peer-review request => No action items were captured
SM should pay attention to capture the action items in agreement with the team
Low team member engagement: only 2 out of the 4 team members were really engaged in the discussions. Another reason why the retro should remain exclusive to the team.
Team member did not have their cameras on for the majority of the retrospective making it difficult to understand the level of presence in the room.
During the retrospective, the team did a great job identifying areas of improvement such as introducing peer-review processes for feedback loop cycles from other team members and cross-functionality, but as mentioned there were no backlog items and commitment from the team.
Team members shared collaboration with LACE on commercial video, training, and identifying action items for PI Planning
The team discussed areas that are currently working such as World Usability Day which is great. however, the retrospective is an area where the team reflects on "How did we do during this Sprint" Did we meet our goals and objectives?
The team seemed concerned about the prioritization of HCD work and structure. Another reason for working agreements and clarification on DoR, DoD team norms.
The energy in the room was very low, retrospectives are also an opportunity to celebrate success and come out with new "ideas" that can improve the team's morale and collaboration.