Topic Teasers Vol. 62: Refractive Retrospectives

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  Agile   Estimating  

While I know that the retrospective step in the agile process is said to be important, I must admit that my team dreads these meetings. Is there a way to focus our time so that instead of silence when we are asked “what we could do better,” we are actually able to have some meaningful discussion? I know what we do each iteration is far from perfect.

A. If your team responds with silence when the ScrumMaster or team lead opens the retrospective meeting for discussion, it is because you have actually done an excellent job during the preceding iteration and there is nothing to be discussed or changed for the next one.

B. Perhaps having a list of questions that you follow in each retrospective meeting will give the team a focused way to evaluate what happened in the last week or weeks. Knowing the questions ahead of time may also influence the data people tuck away while it is happening, in anticipation of the next sharing session.

C. The difficulty with being honest about team failure during an iteration can be due to the presence of leadership or customers. Only the team itself should be allowed to attend the meeting. Then they are free to talk openly about the success and challenges of the project work, as well as the impediments presented by management.

D. A team responding to a retrospective opportunity with no comments means that the meetings are …

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