Sprint
retrospectives
Retrospectives are a good way to reflect on a Sprint outcome. Agile
framework is built on the principle of 'continuously improving through
feedback'. Every team should take a moment from the delivery mode, look back on the previous sprint, and see how things can be improved. In case you feel the team is doing extremely well, take a moment, appreciate the team and the factors that are making this happen. I don't think this ever happens though, there is always room for improvement.
There is no
standard frequency for retrospectives. Some teams prefer to do it once every
sprint, some do it in alternate sprints. In my opinion, when we are starting
new work or new project, this should happen more frequently so that we are
stable early.
Why the blog?
This blog is for teams, who have been doing retrospectives for a while,
but are bored of the regular templates. 'What went well', 'Things to improve'
have now become 'Things that are boring'. 'Sketch your state' is something that
I have used a few times with different teams and they have found it as a good
break from the regular models.
Sketch your state
I know a lot of people love to draw. Drawings bring out the creative
side of an individual. Some people are good at it, some are bad, but this art
is not something that is visible on the team table. Hence, this adds up as a
new thing you learn about your team members.
The idea of this exercise is to ask individuals to draw their feelings
about the project. Are you happy on the project/ team, are you excited, do you
have enough challenges, are you too stressed or underutilised? Give everyone
5-10 mins to draw. People can draw using stick figures, smileys, box diagrams
whatever they are comfortable with.
Post the given time, each one has to explain what they have drawn.
Identify points that are making the team successful or people are excited
about. E.g. 'happy on the team', 'following good practices', 'loads to learn',
etc. etc. Identify the pain points or the issues that the individuals are
feeling. E.g. 'Tech debt burden', 'no direction', 'code smells', etc.
What I like the most about such retros is that everyone gets a chance to
speak and it is not hijacked by a dominating person!
Ask the team to vote on the most painful points. Discuss the top voted
points and identify actions to resolve them. Well, the success of a Retro
depends on identifying the actions to resolve problems and completing them. The
1-1.5 hours retro will help the team feel heard, gives them a platform to raise
their concerns, helps every stakeholder understand the problem that the team is
facing. But, the most important aspect is what do you do with it? So, remember
to follow up on the action items.
Finally, you should always close the Retrospectives on a positive note.
Spare 5 mins to do appreciations. There are a million variations for this as
well. For one, just create a small space on the wall, distribute sticky notes
and ask members to add their appreciations. While you read them, a round of
applause would be great.
Follow this up with one or two of the regular retrospectives (Starfish,
Sad Mad Glad) and do this one again. See if there is any improvement in the
drawing skills ;) and also in the team status.
Here are some examples: