Retrospectives

How to made a good one

Created by Michał Lewandowski / @lewandm4

Hi, I'm Michał. I am ..

..software developer at TouK

..blogger at lewandowski.io

..tech event organizer

Disclaimer

For beginners or people who want to improve their retrospective skills

Experts can contribute by giving additional suggestions

Throw a question at any time

Let's talk about you

How many of you

have been in a retrospective?

have led a retrospective?

think it is profitable for the team?

think it is a waste of time?

do it regularly?

Retrospekcja

Odtwarzanie w pamięci przeżyć lub zdarzeń z przeszłości

Retrospektywa

Chronologiczny przegląd dzieł danego artysty lub grupy artystycznej

Inspect and Adopt

Retrospectives

Relates to:

Engineering practices

Methods

Teamwork

Motivation

Team Sky

Motivation

1% Improvements

Every day 1% better \[\begin{aligned} 1.01^{365} & = 37.8\\ \end{aligned} \]

Every day 1% worse \[\begin{aligned} 0.99^{365} & = 0.3\\ \end{aligned} \]

Workdays 1% better \[\begin{aligned} 1.01^{225} & = 9.4\\ \end{aligned} \]

Motivation

Vision

Major transformation can start from single retrospective

Basics

The Party

Basics

Retrospective coherence

Basics

Process of change

• rejection of old
• chaos
• stabilization
• integral part

Basics

A good (retrospective) leader

• does not break discussion
• stimulates discussion
• prepares activities
• makes notes
• manages yourself and time
• keeps retrospective going
• shows the way
• handles difficult situations

Basics

Activities

• Attention
• Relevance
• Confidence
• Satisfaction

Basics

Kinds of retrospectives

Scrum retrospective

• After sprint review
• 3 hours for one month sprint
• Improvements plan for next sprint

Retrospectives

Formula

• warm-up
• data collection
• generating insights
• setting action points
• closing

Warm-up

Multiple subjects

Vary the subject (Good, Bad, Change)

• Worked well, Do it differently
• Stop, Start, Keep Doing
• Smiley, Frowny
• Prouds, Sorries

Warm-up

The goal

• open for discusion
• not blaming

Bad: How to convince management for faster Jenkins machines?

Better: What is wrong with our testing system?

Best: Find a way to improve CI.

Warm-up

One word exercise

Everyone says one word about:

• feelings
• expectations
• attitude
• goals

Warm-up (big retrospectives)

Working agreements

Activities for

Gathering data

Stickers

Timeline

Talking

Team radar

Gathering data

Team radar

Gathering data

Sticky notes

How to group sticky notes?

• one person does it
• round-robin
• pairs, fours, eights, ...

Insights

After gathering facts, before writing action points.

Ideas:

• understand facts
• dig up the most important information
• discover results of potential changes

Insights methods

Small retrospectives: 5 whys

Small retrospectives: NVC (Observation, Feeling, Needs, Request)

Big retrospectives: Force field analysis

Action Points

SMART

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Results-focused
• Time-bound

Action Points

Dotmocracy

Changes should be selected, not ordered

How many votes per person?

0.25 * total actions points

Action Points

The 25-5 rule

By Warren Buffett

Closing thoughts

Appreciation

How others have contributed to this sprint/iteration/project?

This activity

• changes the way members relate to each other
• helps avoiding fights
• takes time

Closing thoughts

Celebrate it!

Why? It helps to:

• support our changeability
• replicate actions in other areas
• grow success mindset
• increase motivation

First retrospective ever

New team

Flight checklist

• get to know the people
• talk with leaders for support
• talk with team members
• know the context (company and team)

Project retrospective

• do a survey (instead of talking)
• prepare a place and materials
• ask leaders for support
• everything takes more time
• plan for the whole day meeting

Bibliography

The end