Retrospectives Against Tedium

Wayne is a software developer, ScrumMaster and Agile Coach.

  Scrum   ProjectsAtWork  

Observing signs of boredom from his team during standups, a ScrumMaster developed a custom sprint retrospective technique to address the problem. The four-step activity helps to identify long, repetitive tasks that can be shortened, automated or entirely eliminated to keep developers engaged and focused on more meaningful work.

A few months ago I wrote about several sprint retrospective techniques that I have found to be particularly effective (see “Fresh Retrospectives”). I noted that having several techniques in my arsenal allowed me to keep retrospective sessions fresh for my team. This has helped to ensure that we have a steady flow of corrective actions to aid us in our quest for continuous improvement. Since writing that post I have been rooting around on the web looking for other techniques to add to my tool kit.

One useful source for retrospective techniques is the Agile Retrospective Resource Wiki. It lists more than a dozen retrospective techniques in varying levels of detail. While I have made use of several of the techniques listed in the wiki I have found that none of the remaining techniques fit with my team’s current requirements. Some strike me as being overly complex (simplicity is a major factor when it comes to an effective technique), while others are designed for a specific type of issue that we do not need to explore at this …

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