The agenda of the sprint retrospective should address what went well during the sprint and what went wrong. Communicate through thoughtful long-form write-ups and waste less time in soul-sucking meetings and chaotic Slack channels. Actionable items should be extracted from each topic. A typical example would include a video conferencing app (e.g. Most sprint retrospectives focus on these four important questions: What went well? sprint retrospective ideas what went well examples. By opening up the lines of communication, retrospectives should not only allow the team to identify and discuss areas of difficulty within the project, they should also foster discussion of what is going well. Create retrospective . The exercise helps focus the discussion and is a great tool for new and developing teams to improve performance and quality the next iteration of a project. Retrium has so many formats that your team will never have the same meeting twice. Asynchronous sprint retrospective in Nuclino. A retrospective template empowers you to run insightful meetings, take stock of your work, and iterate effectively. I have always said that Retrospectives are the heart of Scrum and the Agile world. You should set the stage so every member of the team feels comfortable. Activities and ideas for making agile retrospectives more engaging. sprint retrospective ideas what went well examples. Break the ice. Allow them 10 minutes to write down their thoughts and place them on the appropriate section of the hot air balloon. Gather feedback on a … This is the instance where the team all get together and do a “self-inspection” on how they are working so far: what went well, what could be improved, and –that is the good part– make a plan and a list of tasks for improving the next Sprint. Again, the items should be grouped and discussed. Generate Insights. In short, the Retrospective is the space where … But, there are also team members that waver the idea of sprint retrospectives at the end of every sprint. Divide a whiteboard into three sections: Learned, Lacked, Loved. The Iteration Retrospective is a regular event where Agile Team members discuss the results of the Iteration, review their practices, and identify ways to improve. Keep your retros interestingWhile having a well-structured agenda is essential for an effective retrospective, utilizing the same agenda for every meeting can result in them becoming too routine. Here’s an example of this sprint retrospective format in action: 2. The what went well, what didn't go well retrospective technique keeps teams focused on their activities over the prior iteration and how they can boost their efficiency and productivity to drive continuous improvement. Copy this template and customize it for your own sprint retrospectives. But first, you'll need to know what it's for, how to use it, and when to implement it. Opening (5 minutes): Set the stage and discuss the goal and outcome of the previous sprint (or more). Instead of digging through the chaos of files and folders and drowning in endless meetings and notifications, Nuclino allows your team to break out of silos and collaborate more thoughtfully. No one likes to point fingers, but if problems go unmentioned, the team won't improve as quickly as they could. The facilitator should then group similar topics and the team should vote on the three topics they think are most important to discuss. On a whiteboard, draw a picture of a hot air balloon with sandbags, a sun and a storm cloud. Sprint Retrospective Meeting Guide: Ideas and Examples A Sprint Retrospective is a meeting held at the end of a Sprint to discuss what was done right and what can be improved. If done poorly, it can turn into a blame game or a just another repetitive, time-wasting meeting. Team members might be more hesitant to bring up touchy subjects during a face-to-face meeting. During the sprint retrospective, the team discusses: - What went well in the Sprint For shorter Sprints, the event is usually shorter. A space for every … Essentially, the sprint review is a discussion about what the team is building, while the retrospective is focused on how they’re building it. By allowing the team to identify problems and make small improvements regularly, you avoid a small problem turning into a huge and seemingly unmanageable one with no simple solution. It is used to review and plan ways to improve the product, while the sprint retrospective is used to review and improve the processes used to create the product. Identify and order the major items that went well and potential improvements; and, 3. What should we start doing in the next sprint? A sprint retrospective, typically the last step involved in Scrum methodology, is a meeting scheduled at the end of a sprint.The team, including the Scrum master and product owner, reviews what went well during the sprint and what could be improved in an effort to continuously analyze and optimize the process. Create retrospective … This abstracts things a little bit and generates some surprisingly productive (and creative) conversations. But not every issue requires a synchronous discussion. Gather data (10 minutes) Here’s where you start to paint a picture of the sprint you just completed, … I often combine Gather the Data with Generate Insights. Well, an idea I came up with is the Retro Action Whiteboard. One of the simplest ways to accomplish this goal is to ask product and software development teams two questions - what went well and what didn’t go well? Begin by asking participants to look back on the current sprint and identify sandbags that slowed the team down and the hot air that helped to push the team higher. More types of activities. Draw the pleasure and gain graph on the whiteboard. The retrospective plays a vital role in agile methodology as it is the opportunity for teams to examine ways to improve. Is a sprint retrospective meeting worth your team's time or will it end up being just another unnecessary interruption? Don't miss this unique opportunity to identify and address any problems with team dynamics which may impede your work. After each sprint ends, I write up the post-it notes for the retro actions that we took away from our retrospective. Instead, ask your team to write up their individual retrospectives and reserve real-time, face-to-face communication for particularly challenging issues. The term “retrospective” has gained popularity over the more common “debriefing” and “post-mortem,” since it’s more value-neutral than the other terms. Once the sprint review is over, the sprint retrospective typically takes place. A Guide to the Sprint Retrospective. It's a practice that helps teams reflect on their way of working and continuously become better in what they do. This template is a great (and free) way to structure your retrospectives and help your team open up. For a four week sprint, this meeting may last for about three hours. For example, by the end of the Sprint a coherent feature may have been delivered, or a significant risk will have been mitigated. The Sprint Goal is a simple expression of this purpose, of the overarching significance of the work selected, and the coherence behind the selection. and What could be Improved? Hand out Sticky notes and allow the team 10 minutes to write down the things they liked, learned and felt they lacked during the period of time the retro is covering. Begin by asking participants to look back on the current sprint and identify sandbags that slowed the team down and the hot air that helped to push the team higher. In other words, a sprint retrospective meeting is to find what activities and “things” the team is doing well, what activities should be continued, and what “more” can be done to improve the next Sprint to be more enjoyable or productive. Some teams refer to these meetings as “sprint retrospectives” or “iteration retrospectives,” “agile retrospectives” or “iteration retrospectives.” Whether you are a scrum team, using the agile methodology, or doing a specific type of retrospective (e.g. Because Agile teams typically run two-week sprints, a retrospective is a chance to see what was accomplished, and what work—if any—is still left. What should we stop doing in the next sprint? This quick retrospective template provides a bare-bones approach to reflecting on the success of a project. They will have enough time to absorb each other's contributions and provide feedback. ... A great Scrum team is always continuously improving their process by discussing what went well in a sprint, and what didn’t go so well. It doesn't only inspect your team's development process but focuses on the team itself. Ideally, this person would not have a stake in the discussion. Activities and ideas for making agile retrospectives more engaging. Next … Create a plan for implementing improvements to the way the Scrum Team does its work. Knowing which factors to address during a sprint retrospective helps, but knowing how to conduct an effective retrospective session is even better. People can submit their ideas and others may up or down vote the idea … The group will then discuss the topics with the most votes, allowing 12-15 minutes of discussion per topic. Next, ask the participants to use their sticky notes to identify the “stormy” areas of the project that will cause turbulence in the future and the “sunny” areas of the project that will help the team become more efficient and overcome the challenges that lie ahead. is a mythical beast. The unfortunate truth is, most meetings are a threat to your team's productivity rather than an opportunity to make progress. 1. As you rightly say, "John was not performing well during the sprint" is not great language. As described in the Scrum Guide, the Sprint Retrospective is an opportunity for the Scrum Team to inspect itself and create a plan for improvements to be enacted during the next Sprint.The Sprint Retrospective occurs after the Sprint Review and prior to the next Sprint Planning. When done well these agile meetings can be a great way for your team to weigh in on the previous sprint by discussing the work that was done and issues that were encountered. Stay Focused 3. Instruct participants to write, on individual sticky notes, each of the activities they perform in relation to the project. Find an Activity . This is an interactive, scenario based module. Learn how to establish a culture of transparency and continuous learning in your team. There are many popular ways to run sprint retrospectives, for example, "Start, stop, continue" or "Good, bad, better, best". Nuclino is a unified workspace that helps you organize all of your team's work in one place. The topics with the most votes should be discussed for 12-15 minutes each. The learner observes a team and is prompted to make decisions as they progress through the Sprint Retrospective Meeting. This serves 2 purposes: The first is to celebrate your success. Example: Trello allows you to easily create several columns and … Key Elements of an Effective Sprint Retrospective. There are many popular ways to run sprint retrospectives, for example, "Start, stop, continue" or "Good, bad, better, best". Happiness Radar. A good retrospective, according to Scrum Guide, should: Inspect how the last Sprint went with regards to people, relationships, process, and tools; Identify and order the major items that went well and potential improvements; and, Create a plan for implementing improvements to the way the Scrum Team does its work. The 12th principle of the Agile Manifesto states: “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly”. When this happens it's common for participants  to merely go through the motions, resulting in a sparcity of good feedback and input. Created with Sketch. … Ideas for Remote Retrospectives that Engage Like ... Sprint Retrospective Basic What Went Well. Scrum online video tutorial with an example of the meeting held at the end of every Sprint for the team to inspect and adapt its process, often asking What went well? If this is not the first sprint, the retrospective may begin with a discussion of the opportunities for improvement identified in the last retrospective, along with a discussion of whether or not those improvements were implemented successfully. 3. Facilitate fun and interactive sprint retrospectives with Retrium. That depends on how you run it. According to Agile retrospectives: Making good teams great, "team issues are as challenging as technical issues – if not more so". Let's dive deeper into what a sprint retrospective meeting actually is and how to run it effectively. Synchronization is always a bottleneck when it comes to communication, but the good news is – in most cases, it's not needed. Here's an example of what a documented sprint retrospective could look like in Nuclino, a team wiki and document collaboration tool: Sprint retrospectives are often confused with sprint reviews, but they are not the same. Gather feedback on the last sprint cycle to improve efficiency and productivity during the next sprint. They should feel free to give a small amount of context, but overall  this step should go fairly quickly. Every sprint retrospective will be automatically documented in your internal wiki. One by one, each member of the team should then place their sticky notes in the appropriate category, reading them aloud to the team as they do so. Here is a list of sprint retrospective ideas and techniques. The Sprint Retrospective concludes the Sprint. In this sprint retrospective example, team members are encouraged to use the LEGO blocks to build a structure that represents the last sprint, and one that represents what needs to happen to improve the next one. Web and App Development Trends for Year 2 of the Pandemic, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Hiring Product Developers, hello@yeti.co An E, S, V or P will do. What Went Well? Set the time period you’re discussing (last sprint, last quarter, entire project, etc.) Whichever style you choose, as long as your retrospective covers the following questions, you're good to go: What did we do right in the previous sprint? Start – Stop – Continue. Privately brainstorm feedback and ideas. Once a sprint is completed, the sprint retrospective gives the project team a chance to reflect on the recent sprint and collect learnings. A great Scrum team is always continuously improving their process by discussing what went well in a sprint, and what didn’t go so well. A sprint retrospective, typically the last step involved in Scrum methodology, is a meeting scheduled at the end of a sprint.The team, including the Scrum master and product owner, reviews what went well during the sprint and what could be improved in an effort to continuously analyze and optimize the process. Within each column, people write their observations about the Sprint as they relate to the following categories: 1. Project feedback. Make sure to clearly document the outcomes of the retrospective, the decisions you made, and the next steps you planned, giving clear accountability and ownership. Slack), a retrospective sprint online tool to ... An example would be the ability to put ideas into related columns or tag ideas so that you could instantly see emerging themes rather than a bunch of disparate concepts. Have each team member use green sticky notes to write down what they feel went well (one idea per sticky). A sprint retrospective is a chance for your Agile team to share what went well during the sprint and planning process, and what you can improve for next time. By creating an explicit approach to solving each of the problems surfaced during the meeting you help your team learn from their experience, preventing them from running into the same difficulties in the future. What is a sprint retrospective? dante's inferno shmoop. Focus on improvement, rather than placing blame If you’ve run a Retrospective previously, quickly revisit the themes and actions from last time to build a sense of continuity. The “inspect” and “adapt” principles play a key role in retrospective session for making the next Sprint more enjoyable or productive. Happiness Radar. Sprint Retrospective Ideas to Facilitate Your New Techniques Now that we have covered some effective and interesting techniques for retrospective meetings, it only seems right to provide some no-nonsense sprint retrospective ideas that will … The Yeti CA The stickies should be placed on the appropriate areas of the white board. The Scrum Master ensures that the event takes place and th… ... Sprint Retrospective Basic What Went Well. Safety Check. Hopes & Concerns. While it's easy to talk about what went well, what went wrong can be a sensitive topic. One Word. That includes the scrum master, the product owner, the … What did we do wrong in the previous sprint? A sprint retrospective, also known as an agile retrospective, is a meeting held by a team at the end of a sprint to review its process and identify opportunities to improve it. how to add fun or sprie it up when entire team is attending retro on video call. 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