Agile Network India - Ahmedabad Title: The Power of Retrospection by Rakesh Mehta Date: March 2024 Hosted by: Gateway Group of Companies

1. The Power Of Retrospectives
Rakesh Mehta
Delivery Manager,
Sigma Infosolutions Ltd

2. Agenda
• Retrospectives
• Common Misconceptions
• Retrospective Framework / Structure
– Set the Stage
– Gather the Data
– Generate Insights
– Decide What To Do
– Close Retrospective
• Release and Project Retrospectives
• Examples
– How to set Goal & Shaping the Goal
– Violating working agreements and blaming
– Managing You
– Guideline for Action Plans
• Book Recommendation
• Conclusion

3. Retrospectives
• A workshop in which participants explore their work and results in order to improve the both
the process and product.
• It provide opportunities to inspect and adapt the process, development approach, delivery
frequency as necessary.
• The Retrospective is all about looking for at a qualitative (people’s feeling) and quantitative
(measurements) of data, then using that data to find root causes, designing
countermeasures, and developing action plans.
• Examples
– Improved Capability, Productivity, Quality and Capacity
– Celebrate Team Success
Reference - PMBOK 7th edition, Agile Practice Guide

4. Agile Manifesto Principles
At regular intervals, the team
reflects on how to become more
effective, then tunes and adjusts its
behavior accordingly.

5. Common Misconceptions
• Misconceptions - Sprint Retrospective is a blame game
• Reality - The Retrospective is a time for the team to learn from previous work
and small improvements.
• Misconceptions - Sprint Retrospective is only for discussing what went wrong.
• Reality -While it's important to address issues and challenges, Sprint
Retrospective also provides an opportunity to celebrate successes and identify
what went well.
• Misconceptions - Sprint Retrospective is only for the development team.
• Sprint Retrospective involves the entire Scrum team, including the Product
Owner and Scrum Master, to foster collaboration and shared accountability for
improvement.

6. Retrospective Framework - Set the Stage
• Introduction
• Goal
• Agenda
Welcome
• Quality
• Simplicity
• Teamwork
• Courage
Review Team
Values • Respect
• Open
Communication
Review Team
Agreements

7. Retrospective Framework- Gather the Data
Picture
Shared a picture of what
happened
Data
Metrics
Milestones
Celebrations
Adapting New Techniques
Metrics
Burn up / down Charts
Defect Counts
Number of user stories completed
Planned versus actual story points
Team velocity trends over a three-
or-more sprint timeframe

8. Retrospective Framework - Generate Insights
Data
• Look for risks
• Unexpected events
• Outcomes
• Investigate Breakdowns
• Look at cause and
effects
Generating
Insights
• It allows the team
to step back, set
the big picture, and
delve into root
causes
Activities
• FishBone
• Patterns and Shifts

9. Retrospective Framework - Decide What To Do
• Start – Stop – Continue.
• Pick the top three potential experiments and improvements
from the list.
• Activities - Voting
• Ensure the selected items are feasible and impactful.
• Commit to implementing one or two experiments for the
next iteration.

10. Retrospective Framework - Close Retrospective
• Decide on a method to document the retrospective experience for future
reference.
• Plan for follow-up actions based on the insights gathered during the
retrospective.
• Conclude the retrospective with gratitude for the team's efforts during the
iteration and the retrospective itself.
• Perform a brief retrospective on the retrospective to identify what went well
and areas for improvement.
• Apply the principle of "inspect and adapt" to enhance future retrospectives.

11. Structuring a Retrospective
Framework Weightage Minutes to Spent
Set the Stage 5% 5 Minutes
Gather Data 35% 20 Minutes
Generate insights 30% 15 Minutes
Decide What To Do 15% 10 Minutes
Close The Retrospective 10% 5 Minutes
TOTAL 100% 60 Minutes
Shuffle Time 15% 10 Minutes

12. Using this Structure - Benefits / Challenges
• Benefits
– Improved Collaboration
– Data-Driven Decisions
– Accountability
– Continues Improvement
• Challenges
– Time Constraints
– Data Overwhelming
– Facilitator Issues
– Follow- through

13. Project Example Contd.
• Customer Details
• Location: Middle East
• Engagement Type: Time and Material (T&M)
• Team Size: 10 (includes both internal and external members)
• Challenges
• Delivery issues
• Quality concerns
• Communication gaps
• Customer Background
• Referred from premium account
• Accounts for 60% of company revenue

14. Project Example Contd.
● Escalation and Threat:
○ Customer has escalated issues
○ Threatened to terminate contract if it is not resolved
● Current Situation
○ Delivery Head has Resigned.
● Action Needed
○ Address customer concerns promptly
○ Ensure smooth transition with new delivery manager
○ Improve delivery, quality, and communication processes

15. Project Example Contd.
● Risks
○ Potential loss of major revenue source.
○ Damage to company reputation
● Mitigation
○ Conduct thorough analysis of issues and implement corrective measures
● Next Steps
○ Hold urgent meeting with customer to address concerns
○ Develop action plan to improve delivery and quality
○ Enhance communication channels with customer to prevent further
escalations

16. Project Example Contd.
• Introduction to New Delivery Manager
• 1 Months time
• Understanding patterns and gaps, especially through side conversations.
• Multiple drivers of the account.
• No Clarification roles and expectations.
• No Communication workflow.
• Issue with User stories.
• PM Roles become Project coordinator / backside.
• Requirement Finalization is Missing - Product Owner
• No Scrum Master to guide team
• Issue with Spill over - unfinished work that carry over next sprint.
• Balancing planned vs. actual story points due to ad hoc tasks.

17. Project Example Contd.
Structure Description
Set the Stage Goal: To resolve the current escalation and strengthen client satisfaction.
Agenda:
Identifying Patterns and Gaps in Current Processes.
Gathering Data and Understanding Detailed Insights.
Reviewing Data
Create top 3 Action Items
Gather Data Dive deep into current processes to understand patterns and gaps.
Collect detailed insights from team members regarding challenges.
Generate Insights: Extract key insights to inform decision-making.
Decide What To Do: Establish a stakeholder register to highlight team roles and responsibilities.
Incorporate ad hoc task allocation during sprint planning (e.g., 30% of capacity).
Communication - Roles clarity communication workflow
Quality –Focus on Unit testing and Increase QA allocation
Delivery - Added Ad hoc allocation in Sprint planning
Close Retrospectives Express appreciation to team members for their contributions.
Consider sending appreciation notes to individuals for their efforts.

18. Project Example Final Notes
• Schedule call with Customer
• What works well
• Fresh Perspective
• Scrum team was collaborating
• Timely Corrective Action
• Resolved their Top Concerns
• Delivery
• Quality
• Communication

19. Releases and Project Retrospectives
• While iteration retrospectives focus on your team and their issues, release and
project retrospectives bring a wider perspective.
• Include People from across the organization
• Bring together people who must coordinate their work to achieve a goal—
deploying software—but may have very different points of view, different
missions, and different measures. When groups that cross organizational
boundaries come together in a retrospective, there’s a chance for organizational
learning.

20. How to Set Goal
• Study context, scan work, and review other artifacts to understand the team's
situation.
• Work with the team to set broader goals based on observed challenges and
needs.
• Shape the goal by choosing a broader objective that addresses underlying issues.
• Examples of useful goals include improving practices, understanding reasons for
missed targets, enhancing responsiveness with customers, and rebuilding
damaged relationships.

21. Personal Retrospective Birthday Day
Retrospectives
• I look back and assess
• I consider
• I taking everything into account
• I try to set a better course for
upcoming year
What is Missing?
• No Clear goals
• Nobody is keeping score
• I don’t know how I am doing well

22. Personal Health Retrospective
Plan
• Goals: 10k steps daily, Walk 1.3 hours / day.
• Action Plan: Morning walk, Walk during calls, Short Evening Walk.
• Measurement: Daily step out, Duration of walks.
• Review: Action Items and Weekly Reports

23. Personal Health Retrospective Contd.
Weekly Report Summary Report

24. Personal Health Retrospective Outcome Contd.

25. Guideline for Action Plans
• Use verbs in action steps to indicate tasks.
 Enhance Customer Satisfaction. You can say - Survey customers to gather feedback on their
experiences.
• Assign ownership to one person for each action.
• Break tasks into small, achievable steps that can be completed in a week or less.
• Set due dates to drive completion.
• Define clear criteria for what constitutes "done" and how it will be
communicated.
• Ensure the action plan meets all these criteria.
• Review side conversations to ensure alignment with action plan.

26. Violating working agreements and blaming
• Listen for language and labeling statements, such as "You broke the build" or "You
are immature."
• Encourage the use of "I" language to express thoughts and feelings.
• Intervene and redirect discussions away from blame or personal attacks.
• Focus on addressing the content of the issue rather than attributing blame.
• Address shouting by calmly holding the conversation, asking to speak without
shouting.

27. Managing You
• Own State
• Re-CENTER

28. Provide Support
• Acknowledge that change is difficult and requires patience.
• Show empathy towards team members' challenges and emotions.
• Demonstrate support for exploration and learning opportunities.
• Utilize big visible charts as reminders of progress and goals.
• Encourage collaboration and shared responsibility among team members.

29. Book Recommendation
This presentation draws references from two authoritative books to provide

30. Thank You
• Questions Please..
• You can reach out to me at
• Email - rakeshkumar.mehta@sigmainfo.net
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rakesh-mehta-230b07a/
• Twitter (X) - https://twitter.com/faith6357