The document discusses the effectiveness of retrospectives in agile software development. It defines a retrospective as a meeting at the end of an iteration or release where a team reflects on what went well and identifies improvements for the next iteration. Common causes of ineffective retrospectives include not addressing real problems, lack of participation or focus. The document outlines a retrospective framework including setting the stage, gathering data, generating insights, deciding on actions, and closing. It provides examples of quantitative and qualitative review techniques as well as problem solving methods teams can use to analyze metrics, identify root causes, and prioritize actions for continuous improvement.

1. Effectiveness of Retrospective
Solomon Raja, PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM
10-May-17

2. Effectiveness of Retrospective
2
Agenda
 What is Retrospective?
 Causes for Ineffective Retrospective
 Retrospective Framework
 Key Benefits

3. 3
Retrospective
Realize where you are and where you want to be
Engage the team in productive discussion
Team work to build “We over I” attitude
Relish the power of Inspect and Adapt cycles
Openness and Transparency make retrospective
efficient and effective
Inspect
Adapt
Continuous
Improvement

4. 4
Retrospective - Agile
• Retrospective takes place at the end of an iteration
or software release. It enables whole-team learning,
act as catalysts for change, and generate action
• The goal of retrospective is helping teams to
continuously improve their way of working.
Retrospective - Agile Post Mortem -Traditional
• Iteration
• Release
• Project Closure
• Project Closure

5. 5
Ineffectiveness of Retrospective
 Real problems are not called out
 The whole team thinks it’s a waste of time.
 The same problems come up every time.
 Retrospectives aren’t valuable since we don’t have any impediments.
 Lack of focus and no preparation.
 Lack of participation.
 The Retrospective is just too hard.
 We do it but it doesn’t have an impact / does not add value.

6. 6
Retrospective Framework
Setting the Stage
Gather data
Generate Insights
Decide what to do
Closing Retrospective
• Create Safe Env.
• Open Minded,
• Engage team
• Focused Discussion
• Visit previous result
• Visit DoD
• Identify Pain Points
• Analyze Metric
• Share Thoughts
• Group Ideas & See pattern
• Brainstorm
• Problem Solving Technique
• Prioritize Ideas
• Get commitment
from team
• Have action plan

7. 7
Team identify the metrics to measure and analyze the progress of iteration for better visibility and
continuous improvements.
• Team Velocity
• Burn Down Chart
• Sprint Goal Success Rate
• Defects Trend
Retrospective – Quantitative Review
0
20
40
60
Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4 Sprint 5
Team X Velocity Trend
Planned Actual

8. 8
There are several techniques for eliciting subjective feedback on the success of the
iteration / sprint.
 Individual - Individually write post or sticky notes and then find patterns as a group.
 Appreciation - Has someone helped you or helped the team?
 Conceptual - One word to describe the iteration.
 Rating - Rate the iteration on a scale of 1 -5, then brainstorm how to make the next iteration a 5.
 Simple - Three columns and open discussion.
 Start / Stop / Keep Doing
Retrospective – Qualitative Review
What went well What did not got well What we can do better next time

9. 9
Here are few problem solving techniques which can be used to identify the root cause of the critical
problem with a possible solution.
 5 Why Analysis
o Identify root cause of a problem by repeating the question "Why”?
 Fish bone analysis
o Identify the problem.
o Work out the major factors involved.
o Identify possible causes.
o Analyze your diagram.
 Pareto Diagram
o To identify the top portion of causes that need to be addressed
to resolve the majority of problems.
o 20% of causes determine 80% of problems
 Control Chart
o A control chart is a tool used to understand the variation in a process.
Problem Solving Techniques
Why did Sprint
goal rating is
low ?
Why new
member did not
get knowledge
transfer?
Why there is no
person for
planning KT?
Why there is no
dedicated
Scrum Master?
Why there is no
budget for
dedicated
Scrum Master?
Allocate budget to have a dedicated
scrum master to track the impediments
for closure

10. 10
 Team productivity
 Team Member Capability
 Product Quality
 Team lead their own improvement journey
 Empower Team
 Increase customer value through efficiency
 Continuous Improvement
Retrospective - Key Benefits
Those who are unaware they are walking in darkness will never
seek the light – Bruce Lee

11. ▪ https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2015/october/5-
major-symptoms-of-ineffective-retrospectives
▪ https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj620912(v=vs.120).aspx
▪ http://www.scaledagileframework.com/iteration-retrospective/
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References

12. 12
Questions

13. 13
Effectiveness of Retrospective