are your agile retrospectives scary?
DESCRIPTION
Retrospectives are the most important Agile practice, but are one of the hardest to do well. Here are some tips you can use to get un-stuck.TRANSCRIPT
Are your retrospectives scary? @jasonlittle
how scary are they?
Pick a card that describes how scary your retrospectives are
Why?
What’s working for you?
What’s making it scary?
Break into groups Write your answers on stickies
Tip 1: Peer pressure!Big, visible kanban board showing improvements listed by team. Opt-in only!
How to use this for good!Can promote positive peer pressure, gives teams a chance to show off cool stuff they’re doing, creates urgency and promotes sustainable pace, chips away at cultural issues that hold retrospectives back.
How to use this for evil!Shame teams that don’t opt-in, use it as a performance measurement, force teams to use it!
Tip 2: Demo!
Demo improvements at Sprint Review
How to use for good!Creates urgency to stick to doing improvements, gives the team a chance to show off cool stuff.
How to use for evil!Force teams to do it, measure and compare number of improvements between teams
Tip 3: Rotate facilitator!
Give each team member the chance to lead a retro
How to use for good!Prevents retros from getting stale, promotes team ownership of retrospectives.
How to use for evil!Mandate that each team member does one, even the introverts! Add this detail to everyone’s performance plan
Tip 4: Monthly shoutout!Company or all department meeting where each team takes 5 minutes to show what they did.
How to use for good!Promotes cross-team learning, gets management involved, chips away at cultural issues that lead to stale retrospectives
How to use for evil!Mandate that all teams participate, shame teams that don’t participate, make sure management doesn’t attend!
Tip 5: Get out of the building!Stop doing retrospectives in the same ‘ol place, the same ‘ol way
How to use for good!Promote creative thinking by doing the retrospective somewhere crazy, like out on Front Street. No, I’m not kidding.
How to use for evil!Use this as a gimmick and accomplish nothing!
Tip 6: all hands on deck!Cross-team retrospectives every quarter to help teams avoid stale retrospectives
How to use for good!Create a quarterly theme and run a fun, cross-team retro every quarter. Opt-in only!
How to use for evil!Don’t involve management, cancel it often because getting real work done is more important.
Go buy this book
https://leanpub.com/gettingvalueoutofagileretrospectives
