Retrospectives: A Bit of Ceremony Can Be Useful
Aino Corry’s message is that if we skip retrospectives there will be problems that we don’t understand where they come from nor what to do to solve them.
Aino Corry’s message is that if we skip retrospectives there will be problems that we don’t understand where they come from nor what to do to solve them.
Double-loop learning can be a great model for encouraging transformational improvements in teams by challenging key assumptions and strategies. Retrospectives and Lean Startup provide a framework to incorporate this learning model.
Tony Wong, a project management blackbelt, enumerates some practical points on individual procutivity. This article wonders how well these apply to software development and contrasts his list with that of other lists.
Usually failures result in anger, frustration and playing the blame game. However, failures are wasted if there is no learning from them. How can Agile teams make failures beautiful?
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Dialogue sheets allow teams to hold facilitator-less retrospectives. They promote self-organization and encourage everyone to speak in the exercise. This results in great levels of participation in and higher energy levels in teams. The sheet itself is A1 in size, 8 times larger than a regular sheet, pre printed with instructions and questions to motivation discussion.

This paper tells how we coached the adaption process of agile software development in a specific company, with a focus on one mechanism – one-hour retrospectives – we employ to guide team members realize the needed change and let them lead it. From our perspective, the stage in which team members start facilitating the retrospective sessions by themselves is a landmark of success.

The 'Retrospective Prime Directive' is a practice used by many teams as part of their continuous improvement cycle. As outlined in Norm Kerth's book, it is intended to foster the deep learning that is the heart of a retrospective. This article is an enlightening conversation, captured by Linda Rising, between senior practitioners on the benefits and the challenges of using this practice.
Ainsley Nies explains how to perform a personal retrospective: Clarify the Purpose, Assess Decision-making Influences, Gather Data, Distill the Learning and Transform Leaning into Plans.

In this presentation filmed during Agile 2008, Tim Mackinnon talks about the aspirations behind the Agile principles and practices, the desire to become efficient, to write quality code which does not end up being thrown away. Tim has a personal perspective on Agile practices and shares from his own experience.

In this presentation filmed during QCon London 2007, Boris Gloger speaks about retrospectives. Agile development teams learn and improve by inspecting and adapting. High performing teams inspect and adapt not only their code and tests, but also their methods and interactions.

Aino Corry discusses various aspects of Agile Retrospectives: how to get them accepted, core principles, length, frequency, structure, techniques for handling problems, and much more.