An Agile retrospective, or “retro” for short, is (typically) an hour-long meeting every team should hold after each sprint (or every week, if the team does not work in Scrum) to discuss what went well and what didn’t. The team also examines any and all obstacles encountered in the previous sprint and discusses ideas for improvements that would allow them to avoid these issues or mistakes in the future. The retro is also a good opportunity for the whole team to look for any outstanding issues in the workflow and collaboration practices. This isn’t usually possible when people are busy working. During a retrospective, you and your co-workers can relax and focus on finding ways to improve collaboration inside the team and, consequently, your overall efficiency.
The outcome of any retrospective is a list of points outlining what the team wants to improve on or what changes they’d like to introduce into their daily process. At the next retrospective, the team can check whether the issues brought up at the previous meeting have been eliminated and whether their ideas proved useful. That’s why it’s so important to have the meetings at regular intervals. Even if a team does not work in sprints, they should agree to either weekly or biweekly meetings in order to control progress and improve.
What's the point of an Agile retrospective?
creates an environment encouraging continuous improvement
A team which focuses on solving issues and finding ways to improve creates a continuous improvement culture. Such a team will get better over time, and, consequently, its members will figure out the most efficient ways of delivering the best value to the clients.
serves to empower teams
During the retrospective, teams make and own their decisions. They agree to improve something together and feel responsible for the outcome, which, in turn, directly affects the team’s maturity and efficiency.
works as a team-building meeting
This works especially well in “new” or “young” teams, where people are still getting to know each other. A retro can help them understand the value of being a team and solving problems together.
helps people vent their frustrations
We all get frustrated and a retro is the perfect opportunity to actually talk about this in a comfortable environment, where there are people who actually understand you.
The dos and don’ts of an agile retrospective:
Dos:
have a good retrospective plan
prepare agenda ahead for meetings which support the discussion about problem solving.
create a safe environment
important to make people speak freely about any frustrations, issues, and obstacles.
criticize actions and behaviors, not people
focus on WHAT, not WHO - important to find ways to improve the efforts together as a team.
analyze and observe working environment
What went well and should be kept in the workflow? What did not go well and how can we improve it? What are the main obstacles in our daily workflow and how can we remove them?
Don’ts:
“complaint sessions”
find solutions and improvements.
Boredom or monotonous
try different retrospective exercises and techniques.
leaking information without the team’s consent
can share their insights in a safe environment.
too many points to change
Underpromise and overdeliver—that’s what a good team should do.
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