Activating improvements retrospectives

Accelerate Through Retrospectives
An easy tool Agile teams use for fast paced learning and early course correction
Here’s why you should use it, too.
page
01
Revised July 2018

ImageSource:
http://registeredcommunication.com/the-3-biggest-transformation-challenges-facing-companies/
Retrospectives? Whybother?
2
https://www.slideshare.net/Erdbeervogel/accelerate-through-retrospectives-activate-agile-agile-australia-2018

UNCLASSIFIED – Agile Retrospectives
ImageSource:https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/improvement-tools-continuous-improvement-and-innovation
Different
ResultsTime
Speedimprovement&innovation
Value,impacts&returns
• Too many
Retrospectives fail to
deliver meaningful
results
• Too often
retrospectives are
painful, boring or a
waste of time
Driving Improvement
Different
Approach

Why Agile Retrospectives?• Formal point for
inspect and adapt
• Lessons learned can
be actioned directly
into the next Sprint
• Safe environment in
which Team can
share failures and
learn from them
• Honest, open and
transparent
https://www.amazon.com.au/Agile-Retrospectives-Making-Teams-Great/dp/0977616649

“Regardless of what we discover, we
understand and truly believe that
everyone did the best job they could,
given what they knew at the time, their
skills and abilities, the resources
available, and the situation at hand”
Norm Kerth
Retrospective Prime Directive
No Blame!
No Judgement!
Psychological
Safety!
Growth Mindset!

Framework to Improve
Retrospectives• Set the stage
• Gather data
• Generate
Insights
• Decide what to
do
• Close the
retrospective
http://agile.2ia.net/Agile%20Retrospectives.pdf

Retrospective Patterns and Ideas
A years worth of Sprints (2 weeks)
page
07

Write
• Team members jot
down what was
liked, learned and
lacking
• Place post-it notes
on poster
• Identify themes
• Dot vote on 2 key
actions for next
sprint
• Ask – “how can we
satisfy lacking”
items
3 Ls – Liked, Learned, Lacked
http://www.funretrospectives.com/happiness-radar-3-ls-dot-voting/

Plus-Delta (+/Δ)
ImageSource:https://medium.com/scrum-expert/scrum-expert-75036ed85489
Write up
things that
+ went well
Δ should
change

ImageSource:https://dribbble.com/shots/2582999-Agile-retrospective
SAILBOAT
You/your team
• ISLAND - Your
goal (e.g.project)
• WIND - Helps to get
youthere
• ANCHOR - Holding
you back
• ROCKS - Future
risks preventing you
from reaching the
island
Sailboat

Starfish
ImageSource:https://medium.com/scrum-expert/scrum-expert-75036ed85489
Write up thingsto
● Keep Doing
● Stop Doing
● Start Doing
● do MoreOf
● do Less Of

Mad Glad Sad
ImageSource:https://blog.mikepearce.net/2013/02/14/mad-glad-sad-retrospectives/
Write up things
that made you
● Mad
● Glad
● Sad
6

6 Thinking Hats
Team discuss
the previous
Sprint whilst
collectively
wearing one of
De Bono’s
”hats”
http://retrospectivewiki.org/index.php?title=6_Thinking_Hats_Retrospective

Ask team to pick a
candy from the jar, and
then share something
according to the candy
colour:
• Red - What you love about your
work
• Yellow – Life goal
• Brown – Favourite movie or
pastime
• Orange - something about your
job you would like to change
• Blue – Best part of the sprint
• Good for Team Building
Candy Love
http://www.funretrospectives.com/candy-love/
example

Hero’s JourneyFuturespective
activity to help
describing a story a
team is pursuing
• Hero - who is the team
going through the journey
• Guide - the people and
things guiding the hero
• Cavern - the challenges
ahead
• Treasure - the awards and
achievements
http://www.funretrospectives.com/heros-journey/

Postcard to the Future • Ask Team members
to write themselves a
postcard from the end
of the next Sprint
• Postcard should
capture what they
would like to see
happen in the future
Sprint
• Read the postcards
out and keep them for
the future
6
http://www.funretrospectives.com/letters-to-the-future/

Appreciate Retrospective
Ask the team
“What did we do
well?
What worked ?”
Ensure that
what makes us
good is
identified and
refined
http://retrospectivewiki.org/index.php?title=Appreciative_Retrospective
Thank YouThat’s Awesome
Great Job Wow, that worked
well

How do we reach the
finishing line
together?
• Imagine the snakes
to be the
impediments teams
faced during the
Sprint
• Think of the ladder
as best practices we
should continue that
helped us realise
our Sprint goal
Snakes and Ladders
http://retrospectivewiki.org/index.php?title=Snakes_and_Ladders

The Fast and the Furious
Write up
● Fast: things that went
very fast
● Furious: things that
made you furious
● Fun(ny): things that
were fun or funny
● First: things that you
experienced the first
time
● Fantastic: things that
delivered value
http://tastycupcakes.org/2018/01/the-fast-and-the-furious-and-other-fs-retrospective-activity/

Spiderweb
Talk about what
abilities are
important to an
Agile team and
how your team
rates against
them
6
http://retrospectivewiki.org/index.php?title=Pillars_Of_Agile_Spiderweb_Retrospective

Three Little Pigs
Draw three columns
● House of straw –
what do we do that
just about hangs
together, but could
topple over at any
minute?
● House of sticks –
what do we do that is
pretty solid, but could
be improved?
● House of bricks –
what do we do that is
rock solid?
http://www.funretrospectives.com/three-little-pigs/

Strengths based Retrospective • Discover Strengths
- How did we do it?
Which skills made the
difference?, Which
strengths made it
possible?, What did team
do to help you? What
strengths do you and the
team have?
• Define actions to
use them – How can
you or the them use
these strengths?,
what would u do
more of to stop the
problem from
happening again?
http://retrospectivewiki.org/index.php?title=Strengths-Based_Retrospective

Captapult
• Great for planning
and preparing for an
upcoming challenge
Draw diagram and ask
team to write notes for
each of the three areas:
• The catapult: notes
related to the
organisation preparing
people to overcome
the challenge
• Team flying thru the
air: notes related to
the person facing the
challenge
• The mountain: the
challenge itself.
http://www.funretrospectives.com/the-catapult/

Place 4-5 chairs facing
each other in middle of
room
• Instruct team to sit on
chairs but leave one
chair vacant
• Select a topic and they
start the conversation
(others in team listen)
• Available chair used
when an observer has
something to add to the
conversation
• When a new person
enters fishbowl, then
someone vacate a chair
• Good for larger groups
Fishbowl
http://www.funretrospectives.com/fishbowl-conversation/

Kudos CardsAsk people to write a
Kudo card
- Great job
- Thanks
- Well done
- Awesome
• Start a Kudo card
Wall in your team
area
• Make sure you
have at least one
card for each team
member (eg can
write >1 cards)
https://agilestrides.com/2017/09/25/40-ideas-to-spice-up-your-retrospective/

Well - Learned - Different – Puzzled
and Superheros
• An activity like
Liked, Learned,
Lacked and
Longer For
• By using
different words
and different
drawings you
challenge and
surprise people
again

Lean CoffeeCollect data via
lean Coffee format
• One topic per sticky
note
• Explain topic
• Dot voting
• Prioritise
• Discuss 5 minutes
• Roman vote to
continue discussion
or move on
• Next topic
http://www.neomobile-blog.com/lean-coffee-hack-meetings/

One Word • Ask people to
describe the last
iteration with
just one word
• Everyone
shares their
word and
explain their
one word
• Are there any
patterns and
discuss

Happiness RadarTeam members rate
Happiness against
each area
● Processes and
practices
● Technology and
Tools
● Scope and
Schedule
● People and
interactions
http://www.funretrospectives.com/happiness-radar-3-ls-dot-voting/

ROTI – Return on Time Invested
• High ROTI score –
continue doing
• Low ROTI scores -
identified for change and
improvement
• SM - Describes and
summarises
particular events,
activities and
milestone in past
Sprint
• Team Rates Value of
that event/activity
• Team notes
behaviours that
contributed to rating

Know - Know - ActionList all the knowledge
and skills your team
should have. For each
item ask:
• we know that we know – it
is clear that we have this
knowledge
• we didn´t know that we
know – the knowledge
existed but it was not clear to
group.
• we didn´t know that we
don´t know – no one was
aware of it.
• we know that we don´t
know– knowledge does not
exist within the group, but we
were aware of it. • Add actions to move to the other quadrant - eg move from
we know that we don´t know to we know that we know
Know we Know
Didn’t know we know
Didn’t know we
didn’t know
Know we Don’t
Know
http://www.funretrospectives.com/understanding-the-group-knowledge/

• Fosters a group
conversation about
feelings and future
directions
• Ask everyone to build an
animal with 8 LEGO® bricks to
represent how they are feeling.
• Share with group
• In small groups give team 6
minutes to build a model with
any number of LEGO® bricks
to represent the group’s future
directions and share
LEGO® Retrospective
Problem
http://www.funretrospectives.com/lego-retrospective/
• Alternate pattern – use
LEGO® to describe the
Sprint

Weather or the Seasons• Ask people to put a
sticky note on the
weather that represents
for them the last
iteration
• Discuss the results and
especially when some
people feeling Sunny
and some are feeling
like Rain
Alternate
• Winter is cold, slow
• Spring is growth, fresh
• Summer is happy, hot
• Autumn refers to
change, getting darker

Inspect and Adapt Workshop
Patterns for end of Program
Increment (PI)
3

5 Whys • Start with problem
and ask why?
• Each Why question
leads to another
layer
• Identify the cause not
the symptoms
• Perform evidence
based analysis
• Proactively look to
eliminate issues
• Seek Improvements

5 Ws – What, Where, Who, Why, When• What happened –
the series of events
as a process
• When did it take
place – in relation to
Sprint , time of day
• Where did it take
place – e.g. in the
code, during
planning
• Who was involved
• Why did it happen –
causal factors

• Look past symptoms to
identify root causes
related to an issue
• Look for reasons behind
problems and
breakdowns
• Look for ways they can
make changes or
influence those factors.
Fishbone
Use this to generate
insights in a longer
iteration, release, or
project retrospective
People
ProcessTechnology
Program Systems
Problem

Timeline or Bubble Up• Think back over
the iteration (PI)
• Note significant
or memorable
events, highs
and lows
• Analyse
• Identify team
improvements
• Bubble up and
escalate
program
impediments

• For program-level
problems, a structured,
root-cause problem-
solving workshop is
held by the ART
• Root cause analysis
provides a set of
problem-solving tools
used to identify the
actual causes of a
problem, rather than
just addressing the
symptoms
Problem Solving Workshop
https://www.scaledagileframework.com/inspect-and-adapt

ImageSources:https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methods/decide/note-and-vote/|
https://unsplash.com/photos/JdtUKqGdqw8|https://unsplash.com/photos/BK8cmeWFLBg
Generate Insights
9

ImageSource:https://unsplash.com/photos/CiUR8zISX60
Take ACTION! 10

ImageSource:https://unsplash.com/photos/mO3s5xdo68Y
Schedule Retrospectives every Sprint
11

Need more inspiration?
Useful Links
http://retrospectivewiki.org/index.php?title=Retrospective_Plans
http://tastycupcakes.org/category/agile/
http://www.funretrospectives.com/
https://www.slideshare.net/Erdbeervogel/accelerate-through-retrospectives-activate-agile-
agile-australia-2018

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