Agile Retrospectives

A ScrumBut example

by Viktor Degtiarovviktor.degtiarov@globallogic.com

Agile Manifesto

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

• Working software over comprehensive documentation

• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

• Responding to change over following a plan

Agile Retrospective

Example of ScrumBut Process

• Scrum team of 8 team members

• Sprint length – 2 weeks

• Project start date – Sep 1st, 2011

Phase 1 – Set the Stage

• Do regular retrospectives

• Schedule the meeting

• Be in time

• Ask team to be prepared

• Schedule enough time (1-1.5 hrs)

• Select the convenient time of the day

Phase 2 – Gather Data

• Prepare metrics

• Share metrics

• Fill all the work done to JIRA

• Used metrics: Sprint Length, Focus

Factor, Total Work Hours, Logged Time,

% of Tasks Done, Planning Accuracy,

Defect Removal Efficiency, etc

Phase 2 – Metrics Example

Sprint # 5 4 3 2 1

Duration (work days) 10 10 10 10 10

Velocity (story points) 54 28 19 36 24

Focus factor 0.51 0.48 0.47 0.46 0.40

Stories done 53% 36% 49% 42% 37%

Work hours submitted 287 243 198 178 161

Total hours 564 504 418 388 400

Planning accuracy 1.09 1.25 1.38 1.22 1.39

Phase 2 – Burndown Chart

Phase 3 – Generate Insights

• What did we do well?

• What can be improved?

• Brainstorming

• Retrospective poker

• Don’t try to blame somebody

• Everyone to share his/her opinion

Phase 3 – Well Done• Stabilization sprint• Continuous integration • Refactoring started• Testing documentation done• Good work done for the demo• Work on Saturday• Mobile version is created• Work started on new feature• DB documentation is created• iPad development• Customer visit• New DB changes deployment approach

Phase 3 – To Be Improved• No code reviews• Late deploy• Poor automation testing• No load/performance testing• Lack of girls in project team • Refactoring brought several

problems• Poor estimations• Low website performance• Broken sprint• Ineffective merge practice• Communication problems

Phase 4 – Decide What To Do• Decisions are approved by

majority of team members• Discuss the ways of improving

the process• Find solutions that fix problems

from what can be improved list• Create list of action items• Each action item is assigned to

team member(s)

Phase 4 – Action Items• English standups and chat – all• Start DB clean up process – Alex• Use JIRA as bug tracking tool - all• Do not skip planning meetings! – all• Plan time for bugfix verification – QAs• Setup local knowledge sharing meeting – Ihor• Do code reviews for all the new features – developers• Create testing documentation – QAs• Create SVN account for autodeploy - Viktor• Penalties for not logged time or skipped stand ups - all• Fix local servers configuration – Pavel• Concentrate on features from the top of backlog - all

Phase 5 – Close the Retrospective

• Thanks to everyone• Share the results• Use action items during

next planning meeting• Check action items during

next retrospective

Thank you