Mastering Scrum

Effective Retrospectives

Every month Prowareness organizes a session called “Mastering Scrum”. In these sessions Scrum Masters share their knowledge about a central theme. On January 19 2012 we focused on Retrospectives.

In this presentation we share 15 different ways to gather data and create insights. We hope this will inspire you to have Effective Retrospectives!

Mastering Scrum

Retrospective Agenda

Esther Derby and Diana Larson propose these steps in their book about Agile Retrospectives to have an Effective Retrospective

• Set the stage• Gather data• Generate insights• Decide what to do• Close the retrospective

http://pragprog.com/book/dlret/agile-retrospectives

Happiness Metric• Create a sheet with a scale of 1 to 5. • Decide on the topic to express thehappiness about (e.g. last sprint, teamwork, etc).

• Everyone takes a post-it anddecides about his or her happinessregarding the topic. • Everyone writes on his post-it whatwould improve his or her happinesswith 1 point.

http://scrum.jeffsutherland.com/2010/11/happiness-metric-wave-of-future.html

The Sailboat

Draw a Sailboat on a flipchart and explain the attendees the wind is helpful, The anchor is slowing downand the rocks are risks in future.

Everyone writes sticky notes with typical Risks, Helpful things and stuff that’s Slowing down

Explain each item, paste it on the boat and choose the impediment to be solved

http://innovationgames.com/speed-boat/

Future Backwards

This technique is designed to increase the number of perspectives that a group can take both on an understanding of their past, and of the range of possible futures.

It helps to identify impediments and to focus on doing the right things to arrive at a preferred possible future.

http://www.cognitive-edge.com/files/Future-Backwards.pdf

Perfection GameUse it whenever you desire to improve something you’ve createdThe purpose is to keep the mindset positive (perfection, what can be improved) in stead of negative (what’s wrong/missing)

1. Presentor presents the thing to improve2. Perfector rates it (0-10) based on how much

value he or she can add3. Perfector explains what he liked4. Perfector offers improvements required to rate it

a 10.

http://liveingreatness.com/files/core-protocols-3.03.html#perfection-game

Five dysfunctions of a team

Explain the basics about the five Dysfunctions of a team, based on the Book from Patrick Lencioni

Draw the team pyramid on a flipchartand ask the team members to putone sticky note on the level they think the team currently is at.

On the sticky note let them write an improvement or action to bring teamwork at a higher level

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Create decks of cards withintrinsic motivators (see blogpostby Jurgen Appelo).

Each participant gets a deck ofcards and places the cards in oneon a line on a table.

Propose a change (for instance in how the team works) and ask everybody to show how that will effect theirmotivation by moving cards up (positive) or down (negative). Let the participants explain.

Intrinsic Motivators

http://www.noop.nl/2009/10/people-motivation-target-intrinsic-desires.html

Personas

For some teams it’s hard to realizeand imagine who the end userof their system is.

Drawing personas and adding contextinformation to each of the personashelps the team understand theirend users.

Next step is to define actions to align better with the needs of their end user.

http://www.agilemodeling.com/artifacts/personas.htm

Problem > Goal > Advantage

Often in a creative team there is norelation between problemsgoals and actions and outcomes.

Visualizing each of them helps the team to focus on the right topicand it helps the team to prevent solving the wrong Problem precisely.

This is a technique often used in Solution Focused Coaching.

Alternative approach of what went well and what should be improved.

Let the team write sticky notesabout things that made them mad, sad and glad.

After they have explained them the team can group the outcomes, prioritize them and define actions

Mad, Sad and Glad

Starfish

Another way of investigating ideas.

On a flip chart draw a pie chart withsections Start, Stop, Do more, Do less and Keep.

Let the team write sticky notes foreach of these categories.

After discussing the items,let the team define actions to improve.

Circles of Concern and Influence

Some times people don’t realize what things they can control and whatthings they can influence and what’s completely out of control.

When a team is complaining about external factors it makes sense to pastethem in 3 circles to visualize what the team can do in order to solve the issuesor to work with them in the best possible way.

http://www.breakoutofthebox.com/circle.htm

Timeline or Emotion Graph

Stimulate memories of what happened during the increment of work.Create a picture of the work from many perspectives. Examine assumptions about who did what when. See patterns or when energy levelschanged. Use this for “just the facts” or facts and feelings.

http://media.pragprog.com/titles/dlret/Activities.pdf

Circle TechniqueDraw two circles on a flip chart.

Write on sticky notes what alreadyhas been achieved and place themin the inner circle.

Write on sticky notes what yet hasto be achieved and place them in the outer circle.

Choose one next step forward andwrite down what needs to be done.

Move sticky note to inner circle as soon as it is Done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7rYkc9-6y0

Speed dating

• Decide on a topic to talk about • Create couples of 2 that faceeach other

• Start the timebox (10 minutes)

• After the timebox one person moves to the next table

Especially useful to involve the entire team toshare thoughts on sensitive topics in a safe way.

http://vinylbaustein.net/2011/07/04/agile-speed-dating/

Run your ass offThis activity is great toset the stage and getpeople all warmed up.

Choose a hallway wherepeople can safely run around.

Have a list with statements about different topics.

Read a statement out loud.

People agreeing with the statement run to one end ofthe hall. People disagreeing run to the other endof the hall.

Done

Thanks to all who attended the session and shared their experiences!

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