Sprint
retrospectives are an important part of scrum methodology. For Agile
practitioners, retrospectives hold a special significance, and offer an insight
into the self-learning capabilities supported by scrum.
The primary
objectives of a sprint retrospective meeting are:
· Display the user stories to the stakeholders, which
have been developed by the team during the daily sprints
· Have the user stories accepted by the investors as
“shippable”
· Discuss and review the entire sprint, and analyze it
to find how the sprinting process can be improved upon
· Find what lessons can be learnt from the sprint, and
how the team can benefit from prior findings and experiences
One of the issues
faced by the scrum team is the team members end up discussing the same issues
and problems in most of the retrospective meetings. The team feels it is
discussing the same topics again-and-again, and therefore it is redundant to
hold retrospectives. In all aspects, the retrospectives seem to be going
“stale” and the team might be just holding it because scrum advocates it. The
learning and self correction process stops in such cases, and the retrospective
loses its importance and functionality.
So how can you pump
in new life in the retrospectives? A few pointers may help you improve your
meetings.
1. Rotating the
leadership
Instead of the scrum master facilitating the meeting, invite the team members to temporarily assume
the role of a scrum master and conduct the meeting. Each member takes turns and
facilitates the meeting in his or her own particular way and manner. The
members can be asked to experiment with newer adaptations and ways of holding
the meeting.
2. Changing the
questions
The two standard
questions most commonly asked during the meeting are:
1. What did we do well this time?
2. What can be possibly improved upon in the next sprint?
Instead, try asking
the question:
· What actually happened during the sprints, and how did
it occur?
Individuals tend to
look at things from their own perspectives, and at times, they might fail to
comprehend the true situation if they are forced to look at issues from a
different point of view which they are not familiar with. Asking questions
which they find easy to answer can go a long way in making the retrospective
more interesting and useful.
3. Varying the
process
Each scrum team has
its own method of conducting the meeting. While some teams prefer group
discussions during the retrospectives, a few of the teams follow the
traditional pattern of having one member demonstrate his or her work to the
stakeholders. Whichever process you follow, try to change it by including
variations into the meeting pattern. A recommended method is to use histograms
indicating member satisfaction levels. The survey can be conducted anonymously
and the findings presented to the entire team. Suggestions can be availed from
the team members as to what new aspects ought to be incorporated to make the
meeting interesting.
4. Thinking about
unique perspectives
Individuals and
people who are not directly connected with the scrum project, but are still
attached to the project somehow can be invited to attend the meeting. Vendors
and system deployment personnel have different insights to offer since they are
directly connected with the market and have a “working knowledge” about
consumer psychology and requirements. Their participation can help the scrum
team to avail a broader perspective regarding how the development of user
stories should be ideally carried out.
5. Changing the
focus
Every team has a
certain focal point, which it concentrates upon while developing the project.
Switching the focus can also prompt the team to come up with new ideas about
how the scrum process can be improved upon. If the team is concentrating too
much upon the engineering practices, the focus could be changed to
collaborative working and solving technical issues by sharing out the problems.Read more on
