Mike Cohn
I sometimes think that the best indicator of how well a team will do at agile is how seriously they take their retrospectives.
Many teams simply go through the motions. They’ve been told they must hold a retrospective every sprint. So they do. But each team member says nothing more than “Things are going well. There’s nothing to improve.” And as such, not much progress is made.
When used as intended, however, retrospectives can be a catalyst for significant improvement. And so I want to share with you four quick tips that can l make your retrospectives more effective.
The first tip is to occasionally hold the retrospective away from the team’s usual location.
I’ve participated in retrospectives at restaurants and while walking beside a creek path near the office. Each proved a great way of simply adding variety to the retrospective.
After all, if you want to change the team’s behavior, it can’t hurt to change the environment even temporarily.
Second, it is occasionally useful for a Scrum Master or coach to focus the retrospective on a single topic.
Most retrospectives should be allowed be allowed to roam into whatever topics emerge. Occasionally, though, you might want to identify a topic in advance that you know the team wishes to improve.
You might, for example, devote a retrospective to making the team’s meetings more efficient, to moving to continuous deployment, or to changing the collaboration tools used by the team.
Occasionally focusing a retrospective this way allows time for deeper discussion of important topics.
Third, if you are working on a multi-team project, occasionally invite everyone to a project-wide retrospective.
Most retrospectives should be single-team affairs. That provides the time, privacy, and focus that an individual team needs to improve its own work.
But occasionally holding larger retrospectives that involve everyone on the project can be beneficial. I find doing this quarterly to be a good cadence.
Finally, occasionally bring in an outside facilitator.
Most team retrospectives should be run by its Scrum Master. Doing so helps that Scrum Master enhance their own skills. It also reinforces the team’s view of the Scrum Master as a servant-leader.
But when a Scrum Master or coach facilitates the retrospective, it can become harder for that person to participate fully.
In those cases, you can bring in a true outside facilitator. Or you can very simply ask a Scrum Master or coach on another team to help out. Have that Scrum Master help with your team’s retrospective, and then return the favor by facilitating that Scrum Master’s retrospective.
Paying proper attention to your retrospectives is one of the best ways to help your team succeed with agile.
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