Getting the most out of your next retrospective

Retrospectives are the course correction points in an agile project. If you've done a retrospective well you know how useful they can be. The challenge with retrospectives are in using them to get the most for your team. Depending on how long your team has been doing retrospectives you may find that your team eventually ends going through the motions of holding the meeting and coming up with action items that may or may not ever be completed.

Not that long ago I had the pleasure of meeting and holding a retrospective with Diane Larsen (Co-author of Agile Retrospectives). She helped me work with my team to understand why the team was having difficulties ramping up. As it turned out we had some obvious issues ( Not all team members bought into scrum, team too large) and some non-obvious issues that she was able to coax out of the team through a variety of exercises.

The thing that struck me the most about her retrospective is that she used different techniques to get everyone involved, keep things interesting, and focus the team on what THEY wanted changed.

Since then I've put these techniques to work; like retrospective participant type. An exercise to get a team to anonymously identify how they feel about participating in retrospectives. This can tell you a lot about how effective your retrospectives are. Participant types are Explorer, Shopper, vacationer and prisoner. This is a scale with Explorer getting the most from the retrospectives and prisoner not getting anything at all. So if you have a room full of prisoners you need to make some significant changes to your retrospective.

Another exercise I like is the learning matrix. It's a way of calling out not just the good and the bad, it includes two other areas. Gifts and Ideas. Gifts gives the team a chance to call out those who provided extra effort during the sprint that may not have even been on your team. Ideas can be offered to improve what the team's doing.

I use the learning matrix by writing it on the board and write down each comment as the team calls it out. I've tried using sticky notes that team members post but that leaves less discussion which is the primary reason to hold the retrospective.

The great thing about Diana's book is that it is chock full of ideas on how to mix things up and keep it fresh; exactly what your team needs to remain agile. If you're looking for ways to mix up your retrospective I highly recommend Diana's book.