
Lately we’ve been trying to improve our retrospective format, moving away from the as hoc “More Of, Same Of, Less Of” and into something more engaging and useful. For this goal, I’ve been applying the pattern outlined in the excellent Agile Retrospectives book:
- Set The Stage
- Gather Data
- Generate Insights
- Decide What To Do
- Wrap Up
The initial feedback i got on Set The Stage was that it felt like a waste of time… this usually includes activities like asking participants what is one word they’re thinking of coming into the retrospective or other things to get them into focus mode. Since we’re pressed for time and didn’t get much value from this activity, we dropped it in favor of a just quick overview of the agenda.
Anyhow, after facilitating a few retrospectives using this format for my team, we branched out and tried it with other teams. The idea we’ve been having is to have someone from another team facilitate a team’s retrospective, allowing all members to participate rather than one being somewhat removed. This week I facilitated retrospectives for three teams, two of which had customers joining over teleconference from the other side of the country. The results were pretty interesting and below I have included my notes of the last two that I did.
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