This document discusses retrospectives and provides tips for effective retrospectives. It defines a retrospective as a meeting where a team looks back on past work to learn lessons and apply them to future projects. The document then lists common "smells" or problems that can occur in retrospectives, such as actions not being completed, ideas not connecting to real issues, blaming others, and the same problems recurring without improvement. It emphasizes the importance of learning from experience through reflective retrospectives in order to continuously improve.

1. Learn from
Experience with
Retrospectives
Rachel Davies
rachel@agilexp.com
Sankofa bird - “go back + fetch it”
What is a Retrospective?
A meeting where a team looks back on
a past period of work so that they can
learn from their experience and apply
this learning to future projects
Pioneered by Norm Kerth
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2. No time to improve?!
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3. Groundhog Day
“Without retrospectives you will
find that the team keeps
making the same mistakes
over and over again.”
Henrik Kniberg
Bridge Model
What happened? What to change?
Past Future
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4. Structure Flow of Conversation
From “Agile Coaching” book
Cloudy Thinking
If team is not clear on what to do then nothing happens
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5. Unconnected Ideas
Ideas must connect to experience and translate to action.
Slow Down!
• People will not talk if you do
not listen to them
• Invite everyone to share what
happened
• Take time to gather the whole
story
• Involve each member of the
team
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6. Living in the past
Look back but also take time to look forward.
Forget about making lists of what went well, etc.
Thinking too big!
Be realistic! How much can you really take on?
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7. Incomplete Actions
Before creating any new
actions, see if old
actions are Done.
Take time to understand
why actions are not
finished.
Blaming
Don’t waste time blaming!
Take a systems view to look for improvements.
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8. Make Time for Ideas
Encourage ideas from
your team
Consider more than one
solution!
Action Plans
What steps will be taken towards
solving the problem?
Who will check up to make sure
the action is implemented?
Make actions visible:
– Allow time in plan
– Review progress
– Care if no change happens
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9. Beware of Invisible Actions
Actions from retrospective need to be visible to team and
management.
No owner
When no one on team champions a change, it gets forgotten
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10. Always the Same Owner
One person takes on actions for the team rather than
supporting team to do actions themselves.
Summary of Retrospective Smells
• Same set of actions come up but not done
– Vague, no owner, too big
• Not touching real issues
• If this continues then you waste time of
participants!
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11. Experiment with your Retrospectives!
• Retrospectives are
about learning from
experience
• Experiment and adapt
the format to
generate new insights
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