AWB - 07 - Agile Retrospective

247 Agile White Book – AXA Emerging Markets EMEA-LATAM
Chapter 7
AGILE RETROSPECTIVE
V1.0

Contents
WHAT I WILL LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER?.................................................................................................................................................................... 250
SIMPLE WAY TO DO RETROSPECTIVES................................................................................................................................................................... 251
WHAT TO EXPECT............................................................................................................................................................................................. 253
COMPREHENSIVE WAY TO DO RETROSPECTIVES ................................................................................................................................................... 254
HOW TO DO IT...................................................................................................................................................................254
COLLECT INITIAL DATA........................................................................................................................................................255
ANALYSE THE DATA............................................................................................................................................................256
ACTIVITIES IN A RETROSPECTIVE.......................................................................................................................................................................... 257
SET THE STAGE....................................................................................................................................................................257
GATHER DATA.....................................................................................................................................................................258
GENERATE INSIGHTS ............................................................................................................................................................260
DECIDE WHAT TO DO ...........................................................................................................................................................262
CLOSE THE RETROSPECTIVE....................................................................................................................................................263
INPUT INTO COMING SPRINT............................................................................................................................................................................... 264
IDEAS FOR INSPIRATION ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 265
THE EXPECTED OUTCOME ................................................................................................................................................................................ 267
TAKE AWAY.................................................................................................................................................................................................. 268
CHECKLIST 7.1.................................................................................................................................................................................................. 269

Agile Retrospective
A retrospective is a team activity to optimize co-
operation, process and communication. It helps to
create more fun and better short and long-term
results during a project. A simple retrospective
offers some basic and easy-to-use tools for the
meeting.

What I will learn in this chapter?
AGILE RETROSPECTIVE
I know the benefits of a Retrospective.
I know how to organise & run a Retrospective session.
I know how to use fishbone & other techniques.
I KNOW HOW TO
PLAN A
RETROSPECTIVE
I LEARN ABOUT
THE FIVE STEPS
NEEDED
I UNDERSTAND
WHAT
IMPROVEMENTS,
BEST ACTION AND
TEAM AGREEMENTS
ARE
I KNOW
WHAT
FEEDBACK
TO THE
TEAM &
COMPANY IS

The whole Team (PO, DT and SM) has to be
present in the meeting, on time and fully
focused on the activity.
SIMPLE WAY to do retrospectives
There are so many things happening during an iteration (Sprint) that people have generally no
time left to reflect and improve the way they do them. That is why Agile includes a mandatory
meeting called a Retrospective that is held at the end of each Sprint. As a good practice, the
concept can also be extended to similar meetings as long as the Team requires it.
During the retrospective, the Team reflects on what happened during the Sprint focusing on the
way they worked rather than what has been accomplished (which was discussed during the sprint
review) and identifies actions for improvement going forward. The retrospective is team-
driven, and members decide together about the changes to make and how they will be
implemented. Nevertheless, as with any discussion, a retrospective requires a moderator. Either
the Scrum Master (or any other team-member who volunteered) can moderate the retrospective
session. It also helps identify strengths and learn from mistakes.
It is important for people to feel safe and in an atmosphere of honesty and trust in order for
every member to feel comfortable at sharing their thoughts. Scrum values are a good starting
point to check when planning a retrospective.

A SIMPLE WAY to do retrospectives
The structure of the retrospective helps people recall and analyse what happened, and in
contrast to less formal methods, provides a path to understanding and improvement.
You should make sure that:
 People understand the benefits of Retrospectives.
 Scrum values are in place.
 The room is quiet and people feel they can express their thoughts freely.
 You clearly understand the 5 steps for a Retrospective meeting.
And don’t forget that People should feel safe in order to carry out a
Retrospective meeting!

WHAT to expect
Performance can be neither improved nor maintained without exercise and, in order to achieve
this, you should expect to:
 Inspect on how the last Sprint/cycle went with regards to people, relationships,
processes and tools.
 Identify and prioritise the major items that went well and potential improvements.
Check for one of three following outcomes for a retrospective to be valid:
 Improvement actions
Set of specific activities for the coming Sprint to be followed/finished by a certain date in
order to get an expected result (Who, How, When).
 Best Practices
List of techniques that have shown results superior to those
achieved with other means (mainly technical things related, i.e.
coding standards).
 Team Agreement
Type of positive behaviours that are expected in the team.

COMPREHENSIVE WAY to do retrospectives
HOW TO DO IT
Regardless of what you specifically do during a Retrospective, there is a five-step “framework” to
be followed in order to achieve the best results. If you can understand the stages, and the value
that each one delivers, you will easily recognise the output of each stage, stay focused and help
the team to improve.
Extracted from the book Agile Retrospectives – Making Good Teams Great - Esther Derby and Diana Larsen
The right hand side depicts the stages to be implemented during the retrospective while the left
one shows how to incorporate them into the following Sprint.
In order to get great result, I follow these activities:
 Set Stage. I get the team ready to engage in the retrospective, create safety to expose
thinking and concerns.
 Gather Data. I create a shared picture of what happened during the last Sprint, see
beyond events, look for patterns, surface assumptions fill in with facts, examine values and
beliefs behind policies and practices.
 Generate insights. I help discuss what was successful and identify any roadblocks,
separate dialogue from discussion and examine system structures).
 Decide what to do. I facilitate the identification the highest priority items to work on and
get a common ground consensus.
 Close the retrospective. I help reflect on the retrospective and thank the
team.
What is the pattern they want to move towards?

COLLECT INITIAL DATA
Scrum Masters moderate a retrospective and consequently, it is imperious for them to prepare it
well in advance.
This is what I gather a few hours before the meeting:
 Latest Sprint/Product Backlog/Burndown or any other Scrum chart plus any additional
notes about the iteration.
 Latest Improvement Actions, Best Practices and Team Agreements.
 Any indicator(s) which might give real value to the retrospective (business indicators,
development metrics, lead time, etc.).
 Write some Etiquette rules (i.e. “Shouting is not allowed”, “Treat people with respect”,
etc.).
 Write the Prime Retrospective Directive as shown in the picture below.
 Office Supplies (Post-its, Paper, Pens, flipchart).

Some successful teams use Retrospective Prime Directive to ensure that everybody feels
secure and objective of the meeting is to improve what is possible rather than blaming anyone:
“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”
Extracted from www.retrospectives.com
ANALYSE THE DATA
Once all information is gathered, it needs to be analysed to find the best strategy:
 Review of the last retrospective´s outcome.
 Review of Sprint indicators (Sprint Backlog, Burn-down chart, etc.).
 Business indicators from Product Owner if necessary.
 Sprint Backlog.
 Personal notes about events that happened during the finished Sprint have to be read
(impediments arose, exceptional events, etc.).

ACTIVITIES in a retrospective
SET THE STAGE
Create a good and safe environment to get everyone participating in the meeting is the main
aim. Getting people involved from the very beginning makes them far more likely to contribute
later on, and will produce a much more valuable experience for all involved.
I generally do this:
 Place on the wall the Improvements Actions, Team Rules and Best Practices
and all the indicators gathered from previous retrospectives.
 As an example of an activity, draw a flower on the flipchart.
 Then ask the team to add all the names of people to thank for their
help/contribution to the team.
Sometimes, I use an Energiser activity to be run as a “warm up” for the team to promote group
interactions.

As an example of the gathering data section, the Scrum Master could
do this:
 Briefly read the things/actions that were decided in the
previous retrospective and declare their current status
 Draw a plus symbol on a flipchart
 Ask the team about the items that were successful and write
them down.
 Instruct the team to do silent writing on post-it with the
things to stop doing/ improve/do in a different way (5
minutes).
 Draw a Delta (Δ) and ask each member to add their sticky
notes to that column.
 Allow every member to explain their point of view. (3 minutes)
There are other techniques that may be used or variations of the
above.
GATHER DATA
It is time to get into the details and allow everyone to contribute.
Be aware of the mood of the team and try to pay special attention to:
 People´s interactions
 Body language
Finally, don’t forget to compare post-it with your personal notes.

The focus of this stage is to generate insights. Remember to remove the repeated post-it and have
in mind that in this case every remark is important. Get ideas from everyone so you can really
understand the mood of the team.
Extracted from companyculture.com
It is time now to vote and prepare information to be analysed:
 Ask the team to group notes in a logical way and remove duplicates.
 Ask each person to vote for the most important groups or elements using dot-
voting; 3 or 5 dots per person the number of dots should not exceed number of
items on Δ section.
 Select the 3 most voted elements.
Remember that you want to accumulate as much data about the retrospective’s subject as you
can. The goal is to gather information that helps you check the team´s experiences with reality.
(Extracted from communitea.me)
ANALYSE the data

GENERATE INSIGHTS
Once you’ve gathered the essential details, it’s time to figure out what this information
means - you establish patterns and figure out trends in this stage, i.e. what contributed to
success? Which action caused that breakdown?
Many times my opinion and perception differed from others within the team. Some tips to make
sure that all points of view are considered:
 Split the Team into groups maximum of 3 people
 Ask them to discuss the 3 main topics (5 minutes)
 Draw a cause-effect diagram (see below) and feed it with information provided by
them
When you use a team approach to problem solving, there are often many opinions as to the
problem’s root cause. One technique developed by Kaoru Ishikawa that helps visually display many
potential causes for a specific problem/effect is the cause-effect diagram or fishbone. A
fishbone can help bring out a more thorough exploration of the issues behind the problem that will
lead to a more robust solution.

Be careful not to create a “shopping list” only
but to find patterns and underlying causes
from these lists.
Take one of the top 3 post-it and place it in a box at the “head” of the fishbone. If all the 3 top
elements belong to the same group, you can also use the Group´s name i.e. “Share Metrics”.
Identify different factors that may be a part of the problem (technical, people, physical
infrastructure, etc.). Now, for each of them, identify possible causes that may be related to the
factor. You can do that by asking WHY many times, i.e. “Why is it not easy?” “Why do I need to
install a tool?”
Discover more topics and place them in other branches, repeat the process using Why´s
strategy. Show all these possible causes as shorter lines coming off the "bones" of the diagram.
If the cause is large or complex, then it may be better to break it down into sub-causes.
The idea on this phase is to establish a good insight about the written items. Remember that only
if you recognise the problem you can resolve it. Make sure the team does not jump
straight into resolving the problem before understanding the cause. Getting some conclusions
based on different opinions is the outcome for this part.

Any action to be taken has to be written
down by the Team, never Scrum Master or
any other person.
DECIDE WHAT TO DO
You have come up with conclusions and now you need to relate them with solutions.
Remember that they can be classified as:
o Improvement Actions (use ‘What, Who, When’ to help the team)
o Best Practices
o Team Rules
If many solutions are available, dot voting can also be used here to select the most important
ones. In general, Team Rules are added without any filter.
The improvement actions may require the team choosing people who will follow the activities
(sentinels); make sure the Team note down their names including any other relevant
information (deadlines, how to proceed in the different scenarios, etc.).
If there is an area for the improvement, write the actions in the Kanban board. Any other
document should also be located in a visible place.

CLOSE THE RETROSPECTIVE
Have a brief chat on what went well in the retrospective and what might be improved, get
some feedback, have a few seconds to think about it and pay attention to the final people´s
mood and body language. Thank the whole Team for their time and effort.
Remember that if there are people who are impacted by the decisions made during the
retrospective, they should be informed right away after the meeting.

A retrospective is an opportunity for the
Team to reflect and get better. It is not a
meeting for anyone external to the Team to
do micro-management.
INPUT into coming Sprint
There are two feedback loops expected from a retrospective:
 Actions or things to be improved.
 People or any other activity in the company which is obstructing the Team to do better.
The first part relates more to the day-to-day work during a Sprint and the “local” process in
general and the second is an opportunity for the company to support the Agile values and
practices.
Open the checklist “Agile Retrospective” to see how to do this meeting.

IDEAS for inspiration
Sometimes things need to be spiced up in order to get better result, here are some tips:
 Use games during your retrospective
 Ask a person outside the Team to moderate the meeting so the Scrum Master can be
part of it
 Use a Timeline retrospective to look back exhaustively
 Use a Starfish retrospective to look into the past, present and future
These activities may be found using a searching on the internet along with hundreds of other
ideas.
Use a safety check when in doubt of how safe people feel. You can do this by asking them to
anonymously fill one of the following numbers:
That should be done right after finishing the Sprint but before the Retrospective starts. The
results should be fed into the meeting to help the Team get some extra insights.
Safety Check
5 Talk about anything, want to explore other´s thoughts as well as
my own.
4 Talk about most things, but I may keep quiet during some
discussions.
3 Happy to sit and listen, will talk if something I am very passionate
about comes up.
2 Not comfortable talking, even when I have a strong Opinion, will
keep it to myself.
1 Not comfortable being here, I want to leave.

IDEAS for inspiration
ESVP safety check is quite similar to the technique values 1-5 but offers the participants to USE the
letters E, S, V or P:
Extracted from akashb.com
E (Explorer). I am here to explore both my own and others thoughts and feelings. Happy to
talk about everything
S (Shopper). Happy to observe and interested in what people have to say about all topics. If
something that they care about is discussed then I will get involved and talk.
V (Visitor). Not keen on talking, just happy to sit back and observe.
P (Prisoner). Not comfortable being here at all. Only here because I have to be, if I had a
choice I would be somewhere else.
That should be done right after finishing the Sprint but before the Retrospective starts.
The results should be fed into the meeting to help the Team get some extra insights.

THE EXPECTED outcome
You should expect some of the following outcomes for a Retrospective meeting to be valid:
 A list of Improvements Actions.
 Changes in the Team Agreements.
 Changes to the Best Practices.
 People feeling ok and happy about the outcome.

TAKE AWAY
REMEMBER
 Every 2 weeks a retrospective with the Product Owner should be held.
 A retrospective is valid if some improvement actions, changes in the process or
changes in the way the team works are created.
 The whole team should be present and the meeting is unavoidable/non-cancellable.
 Depending on the size of the team, a retrospective does not usually last more than 1 hour.
 Use BIG letters for whatever is written, never look for culprits & don´t forget to thank everyone.
DEEPEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Tips for a retrospective facilitation from Esther Derby
Game Storming Book
Starfish retrospective
Double loop learning
BENEFITS
 Improves processes & interactions between people.
 Identifies good practices and concrete actions.
 Identifies aspects that are working and help spread them between all participants.
 Empowers learning & motivation.

Retrospective
Checklist 7.1
Version 1.0
DATE: __________
Audience
Context
Listed steps and action items help to ensure that the retrospective in extended format will run
smoothly.
To learn further about retrospective please also refer the chapters dedicated to Full and Simple
retrospectives and check-list for simple retrospective meeting.

T ask Comments
1. Before the retrospective

The room has been booked for 2 hours.

Product Owner/Development Team/Scrum
Master have been invited and details of the
activities have been sent.
 A confirmation from all participants has been
received.
 Safety Check has been carried out (optional).
 Information has been gathered (i.e. Latest
Sprint, Burndown, Business Indicators, etc).
 Actions taken from previous retrospective and
the current status were read.
 Colour pens, Flipchart, post-its, and A4
sheets are available

(If it is not my team) I spoke with the Scrum
Master about how the Team did in the last
Sprint.

The room has been inspected and there are
no obstacles which can obstruct
communication (big tables, noise, etc.)

Team Agreements and any other relevant
list/document/Prime Retrospective
Directive/Safety check result have been
posted on the wall
 If the retrospective is with Business, business
indicators have been also placed on the wall.
 Etiquette Rules have been placed on the wall.
2. During the retrospective
 I checked that people feel safe.
 Time to “arrive” and get into the right mood

has been given to people and optionally an
Energiser activity was carried out.

Everyone remembers/gathers data; A shared
pool of information has been created and
briefly shared.

A flower was drawn and all the people´s
names to thank for their effort were written
down in there. (Optional)

Actions decided in previous retrospectives
were checked.

A plus (+) was written and everything that
went well was added in there. (Or another
type of retrospective)

Silent writing activity was carried out.
(Optional)

Patterns were identified and written on a
table (plus or delta areas).
 A delta column (Δ) was added to the table.
(Or another type of retrospective)

Each participant had 3 minutes to write and
place their post-its to the Delta column (Δ)
and the duplicated ones were removed.
(Time may vary)

I paid attention to people´s interactions,
body language and compared all post-it with
my personal notes.

Prioritisation was done and the top voted
elements/groups were chosen.

People are split into groups of 3.

A discussion about the chosen issues was
established in order to get the root cause(s).
The fishbone tool can be used.

Improvement Actions, Team Rules and Best
Practices were identified by the Team under
agreement.


Team decided what to do. Concrete action
plans to address the issues, modifications to
the Team Rules and changes in the Best
Practices were created.

Outcome was written on a sheet of
paper/flipchart

You asked for feedback and thanked the
team
 3. After the retrospective

Team took the Improvement Actions,
changes in the Team Rules and
reviewed/modified the Best Practices and
placed them in a visible area or Kanban.
 People impacted by the new “rules” were
informed.

AWB - 07 - Agile Retrospective

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