1. Mastering Scrum
Effective Retrospectives

2. Mastering Scrum
Every month Prowareness organizes a session called
“Mastering Scrum”. In these sessions Scrum Masters
share their knowledge about a central theme.
On January 19 2012 we focused on Retrospectives.
In this presentation we share 15 different ways to
gather data and create insights. We hope this will
inspire you to have Effective Retrospectives!

3. Retrospective Agenda
Esther Derby and Diana Larson
propose these steps in their book
about Agile Retrospectives to have
an Effective Retrospective
• Set the stage
• Gather data
• Generate insights
• Decide what to do
• Close the retrospective
http://pragprog.com/book/dlret/agile-retrospectives

4. Happiness Metric
• Create a sheet with a scale of 1 to 5.
• Decide on the topic to express the
happiness about (e.g. last sprint,
teamwork, etc).
• Everyone takes a post-it and
decides about his or her happiness
regarding the topic.
• Everyone writes on his post-it what
would improve his or her happiness
with 1 point.
http://scrum.jeffsutherland.co
m/2010/11/happiness-metric-
wave-of-future.html

5. The Sailboat
Draw a Sailboat on a flipchart and
explain the attendees the wind is
helpful, The anchor is slowing down
and the rocks are risks in future.
Everyone writes sticky notes with
typical Risks, Helpful things and
stuff that’s Slowing down
Explain each item, paste it on the boat and
choose the impediment to be solved
http://innovationgames.com/speed-boat/

6. Future Backwards
This technique is designed to
increase the number of perspectives
that a group can take both on an
understanding of their past, and of
the range of possible futures.
It helps to identify impediments and
to focus on doing the right things to
arrive at a preferred possible future.
http://www.cognitive-edge.com/files/Future-Backwards.pdf

7. Perfection Game
Use it whenever you desire to
improve something you’ve created
The purpose is to keep the mindset
positive (perfection, what can be
improved) in stead of negative
(what’s wrong/missing)
1. Presentor presents the thing to improve
2. Perfector rates it (0-10) based on how much
value he or she can add
3. Perfector explains what he liked
4. Perfector offers improvements required to rate it
a 10.
http://liveingreatness.com/files/core
-protocols-3.03.html#perfection-
game

8. Five dysfunctions
of a team
Explain the basics about the five
Dysfunctions of a team, based on the
Book from Patrick Lencioni
Draw the team pyramid on a flipchart
and ask the team members to put
one sticky note on the level they think
the team currently is at.
On the sticky note let them write an
improvement or action to bring
teamwork at a higher level
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

9. Intrinsic Motivators
Create decks of cards with
intrinsic motivators (see blogpost
by Jurgen Appelo).
Each participant gets a deck of
cards and places the cards in one
on a line on a table.
Propose a change (for instance in how the team works)
and ask everybody to show how that will effect their
motivation by moving cards up (positive) or
down (negative). Let the participants explain.
http://www.noop.nl/2009/10/people
-motivation-target-intrinsic-
desires.html

10. Personas
For some teams it’s hard to realize
and imagine who the end user
of their system is.
Drawing personas and adding context
information to each of the personas
helps the team understand their
end users.
Next step is to define actions to align
better with the needs of their end user.
http://www.agilemodeling.com/artifacts/personas.htm

11. Problem > Goal > Advantage
Often in a creative team there is no
relation between problems
goals and actions and outcomes.
Visualizing each of them helps the
team to focus on the right topic
and it helps the team to prevent
solving the wrong Problem precisely.
This is a technique often used in Solution Focused Coaching.

12. Mad, Sad and Glad
Alternative approach of what
went well and what should be
improved.
Let the team write sticky notes
about things that made them mad,
sad and glad.
After they have explained them the team can
group the outcomes, prioritize them and define actions

13. Starfish
Another way of investigating ideas.
On a flip chart draw a pie chart with
sections Start, Stop, Do more,
Do less and Keep.
Let the team write sticky notes for
each of these categories.
After discussing the items,
let the team define actions
to improve.

14. Circles of Concern
and Influence
Some times people don’t realize
what things they can control and what
things they can influence and what’s
completely out of control.
When a team is complaining about
external factors it makes sense to paste
them in 3 circles to visualize what the
team can do in order to solve the issues
or to work with them in the best possible
way.
http://www.breakoutofthebox.com/circle.htm

15. Timeline or Emotion Graph
Stimulate memories of what
happened during the increment
of work.
Create a picture of the work
from many perspectives.
Examine assumptions about who
did what when. See patterns or
when energy levels
changed. Use this for “just the
facts” or facts and feelings.
http://media.pragprog.com/titles/dlret/Activities.pdf

16. Circle Technique
Draw two circles on a flip chart.
Write on sticky notes what already
has been achieved and place them
in the inner circle.
Write on sticky notes what yet has
to be achieved and place them in
the outer circle.
Choose one next step forward and
write down what needs to be done.
Move sticky note to inner circle as soon as it is Done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Y7rYkc9-6y0

17. Speed dating
• Decide on a topic to talk about
• Create couples of 2 that face
each other
• Start the timebox (10 minutes)
• After the timebox one person
moves to the next table
Especially useful to involve the entire team to
share thoughts on sensitive topics in a safe way.
http://vinylbaustein.net/2011/07/04/
agile-speed-dating/

18. Run your ass off
This activity is great to
set the stage and get
people all warmed up.
Choose a hallway where
people can safely run around.
Have a list with statements about different topics.
Read a statement out loud.
People agreeing with the statement run to one end of
the hall. People disagreeing run to the other end
of the hall.

19. Done
Thanks to all who attended the session and shared
their experiences!
Want to know more or follow us:
Twitter: @ProwarenessNL
Web: http://scrum.nl/