Love your team!

Or, Better Living Through RetrospectivesVesna Kovach @Vesna_V_K

https://joind.in/talk/9ca30

1.Got Problems?

Decide what to do.

Today’s agendaLove Your Team agenda

2.Anatomy of a Retrospective

Retrospective: Definition“Agile ritual”

Team activity

Highly structured

Specific segments

Timeboxed

Regular intervals

Retrospective: PurposeLook at the past

A specific period or phase of work

Recent

Identify issues

Decide what to do

Issue: Create focus for week aheadMonday morning kickoff meeting

Issue: Feature suggestions get Buried Add a “fly-by” segment to weekly story

grooming for new icebox items.

Issue: Devs and Stakeholders Not in syncEmail list of features going live

Devs attend departmental meetings

Demo new features

Issue: Making time to work on big pictureMonthly strategy lunch

Issue: Team interaction NarrowMonthly game lunch

Retrospective: structure1.Set the stage

2.Gather data

3.Generate insights

4.Decide what to do

5.Close the Retrospective

Act 1: set the stageIntroduce goal

Review agenda

Group activity

General

Check in

Favorite superhero

Specific

Rate a particular topic 1-5

Act 2: Gather DataWhat happened?

Timeline

How do we feel

about ____?

Mad/Sad/Glad

Team Radar

What went right?

Locate Strengths

What’s on your mind?

Triple Nickels

Act 3: Generate insightsGlean new perspectives from the facts

Find meaning

Patterns and shifts

Identify themes

Force field analysis

Generate suggestions

Brainstorm

Find team values

Prioritize with dots

Act 3: Generate insightsMomentum highest here.

Do not attempt to solve the problems!

You MUST move your team on to...

Act 4: Decide what to doConcrete plans!

SMART goal

Specific

Measureable

Attainable

Relevant

Timeboxed

Gain consensus

Circle of Questions

Create detailed action plans

Retrospective Planning Game

Choose direction

Prioritize With Dots

Act 5: CloseRetrospect on this

Retro

Helped/Hindered/Hypothesis

+/Δ

Return on Time Invested

Temperature Reading

Appreciations

Puzzles

New info

Recommendations

Hopes & wishes

Warm Fuzzies

Appreciations

3.HOld a Great Retrospective

Who?Every team member (eventually)

Shared ownership

Increased skills

More styles

Better participation

Conscious onboarding

When they feel ready

Provide resources

When?Classic answer:

At end of iteration

What works for my team:

Every other week

Friday end of day

Your answer:

Often enough

At a good point in your flow

How Long?YMMV

We do

1 hour

90 minutes

Some places do

All day

Some BasicsTeam agreements

Agenda preparation (facilitator)

Reading agenda ahead of time (group)

Attendance

Ending on time

Ways to follow through

Example Working Agreement

ContentCraft agenda

Choose activities

Figure out time slots for each

Agenda template

Content: What to do?

Resources

for the activities

Agile Retrospectives:

Making Good Teams Great

By Esther Derby and Diana Larsen

Retrospective Wiki

Fun Retrospectives

Retromat

Retrospective Toolbox

Tip:Start here!

Tips for contentRead over your previous Retros

What exercises did you use?

What topics did you cover?

What was decided?

Did you follow through?

Tailor to the moment

Tools: FacilitatorDry-erase board

(Or easel and flip pad)

To clean board

Towel

Water! (not solution!)

Eraser

Markers that work

Plenty of colors

Yellow, orange -- highlighting

Watch or timer

Basket or tub for supplies.

Drinking water

Cough drops

Prep Fully: The boardSet up the board

Clean it

Draw charts to fill in

Anticipate space you’ll need

Check supplies

Tools: TeamFor the team

Nice pens that work

Legal pads

Index cards

Sticky notes

Plenty of the right colors

Colored magnets

For voting on magnetic board

Wall clock

Prep Fully: for the teamKnow the activities

Anticipate best

writing supplies

Set up for your

team

Decide on materials

Provide them

Arrange seating

FacilitateDon’t expect to participate

At least, not in every exercise

At least, not at first

Put your energy into helping the team have a great meeting

FacilitateProvide clear

instructions

Avoid “Whatever you want it to mean”

type instructions

Free up energy for exploring the

issues

Get more consistent results

Get team members in sync

FacilitateProvide clear instructions

Hold people to the rules of the game

Better gameplay

Helps focus

Helps stay on task

FacilitateTricky balancing act:

Make sure everyone is heard

Contribution must land

Keep the group on task

Remember: We’re here to identify issues

Not necessarily to resolve them

FacilitateMake sure to leave enough time for...

The hardest act to get to…

Decide what to do.

FacilitateLeave a few minutes for the closing act.

Let people go home on time.

4.Capture the Results

Capture the ResultsTake picture(s) of the board

Just in case

Make notes of points made

Write up all suggestions, puzzles,

appreciations

Write up what was decided

Summarize insights

Publish results to team

Get StartedGo over the plans you made together

Pin down the details

Who will do what

Put any meetings on the calendar

Write up any stories

Reiterate any timeboxes

5.Temperature Reading

Temperature readingAppreciations

New info

Puzzles

Hopes and wishes

Recommendations

Further ReadingLeanpub’s Agile Retrospective Bundle of six

e-books

Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives

Project Retrospectives: A Handbook for Team

Reviews

Fifty Quick Ideas To Improve Your

Retrospectives