Tips for an Effective Agile Sprint Retrospective
Continuous improvement, a focus of every Agile team. You hear about continuous improvement all the time but no one tells you how can achive it. This is where the Agile Sprint Retrospective comes into play. Regular, effective Retrospectives will help teams grow their Agile maturity quickly. On the other hand, ineffective Sprint Retrospectives will just frustrate team members.
So what can you do to enhance the effectiveness of your Agile Sprint Retrospective? Here are some tips.
What is the Agile Sprint Retrospective?
Before we get started, let’s have a refresher of what is the Agile Sprint Retrospective.
According to the Scrum Guide, the Agile Sprint Retrospective is described as:
The purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to plan ways to increase quality and effectiveness.
The Scrum Team inspects how the last Sprint went with regards to individuals, interactions, processes, tools, and their Definition of Done. Inspected elements often vary with the domain of work. Assumptions that led them astray are identified and their origins explored. The Scrum Team discusses what went well during the Sprint, what problems it encountered, and how those problems were (or were not) solved.
The Scrum Team identifies the most helpful changes to improve its effectiveness. The most impactful improvements are addressed as soon as possible. They may even be added to the Sprint Backlog for the next Sprint.
The Sprint Retrospective concludes the Sprint. It is timeboxed to a maximum of three hours for a one-month Sprint. For shorter Sprints, the event is usually shorter.
The ideal output, a plan to increase quality and effectiveness, will have positive long term effects for your Scrum team. With that being said, here are some tips to improve your Agile Sprint Retrospective.
Establish the Purpose and Ideal Outcome
The Scrum Team identifies the most helpful changes to improve its effectiveness. The most impactful improvements are addressed as soon as possible.
Defining the purpose and desired outcomes of all Agile ceremonies, as well as any meeting, is crucial. Meetings that lack clear objectives end up being mere gatherings without direction. Given that people are busy, aimless meetings can lead to wasted time and team member frustration.
One characteristic of a successful Agile team is the ability to learn from their failures and successes. When you establish the purpose and ideal outcome of the Agile Sprint Retrospective, a team can focus on improvement and celebrate their successes.
Continually reminding the team of the purpose and desired outcomes is essential. Over time, as a team collaborates, undesirable habits may begin to develop. Scrum teams can get comfortable and not see a need for continuous improvement. When you see that the outcome is not being achieved, remind team members of the ideal outcome before the next Sprint Retrospective.
Create and Learn from Sprint Experiments
A strong, mature Agile team can pivot quickly, and effortlessly. This flexibility pertains not only to the product development but also to the team’s methodologies and processes. The ability to try something new each Sprint, and reflecting on the experiment at the end of the Sprint, will allow the Scrum team to pivot quickly if the experiment fails, or continue and improve on the new idea.
The Agile Sprint Retrospective is the best place to create new experiments and reflect on them. New ideas can be discussed and be broken down into a plan on how to implement the experiment, and how long the experiment should last. The experiment can be even the smallest thing too. Even small ideas can lead to great improvements.
While an experiment is ongoing, you may need to remind the Agile team of the experiment. Ideas could be brought up but after a few days into a Sprint, team members may forget, or simply not do the experiment. Breaking down the experiment into Action Items is a great way to keep it in focus. Adding the Action Item to the Active Sprint board will help remind the team throughout the Sprint of the experiment.
Reflecting on and learning from the experiment is just as key. Use the start of the Sprint Retrospective to do just that. Ask the Scrum team if the experiment improved the way of working, or solved the problem they faced. Remind the Agile team that an experiment can be extended, changed, implemented, or outright stopped. Seek opportunities to learn from the experiment no matter if it was a failure or a success.
You may face challenges from team members, or leadership in running experiments. Fear of change does exists. Counter the fear, and push back by reminding them that it is only an experiment. The experiment will be reflected on, and if it was a failure, it only lasted a Sprint. The long term benefit of improvement is worth the risk of an experiment not working out for one Sprint.
Use a Retrospective Tool
Agile tools can provide great benefits for teams. Tools to track user stories, documentation, and technical details help a team reflect and improve. Using a tool for Sprint Retrospectives will help too.
Retrospective tools can provide many benefits to an Agile team. You will be able to make the Retrospective anonymous, track history, and change Retrospective style quickly. All key features that make a Sprint Retrospective effective.
EasyRetro is a free tool I use frequency. It has templated Retrospectives, allows for anonymous feedback, voting, and you can customize a board anyway you like. It has other great features too.
Miro can be used too. Although it is not a dedicated Sprint Retrospective tool, it does have built in templates. You can customize the board, allow voting, and set a time among other features.
Make it as Anonymous as Possible
Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, and Courage
Team members should feel comfortable when discussing successes and failures. The Scrum values give direction to the Scrum team with regard to their work, actions, and behaviours. Providing a tool that allows for anonymous feedback will help team members be open about sharing an issue that needs to be addressed.
Using a tool with an anonymous feature will help uncover potential improvements that might not be discussed otherwise. An issue could be controversial, and even though Agile Sprint Retrospectives are safe environments, a team member may not be willing to share. An anonymous tool will, at the minimum, allow the issue be raised.
Once an issue is out in the open, a team can discuss it. This is where an Agile Leader is key. Making an Sprint Retrospective totally anonymous is difficult. The Agile Leader on the team should lead the conversation around the issue. The issue may be sensitive but important and singling someone out will not be helpful.
Vote and Discuss Most Voted Items First
Occasionally, during a Sprint Retrospective, team members may have numerous points to address. With an abundance of topics, there may not be sufficient time to cover every item. Therefore, prioritizing the most critical issues is essential.
After everyone spends time adding items they want to discuss to the Sprint Retrospective board, give the Agile team time to vote on items they want to discuss. Allow voting on both positive and improvement items. Once everyone is done voting, order the discussion by votes.
Stories are worked on by priority, Retrospective items should be treated the same. By discussing the top priorities first, you will not run the risk of missing items. Running out of time with a highly voted item still not discuss will frustrate everyone.
Before starting to discuss items, read all the items to be discussed. You may have to skip one or two items if there is a item you want to discuss right away. More times than not, the highest priority item will be voted by the team, but something pressing may need to be addressed first.
Keep Conversations Focused
This is often the point at which a Sprint Retrospective can go off track. The team may begin discussing one issue, but as the conversation progresses, it branches out to related topics, and continues to diverge until the original issue is forgotten. Going down a rabbit hole will lead to priority items being missed.
Focusing on the item to discuss is key. Letting the conversation transform into a different issue, will just cause the original higher priority issue to go unaddressed. As an Agile leader, keeping focus on one issue at a time will lead to far more valuable action items.
As you discuss the item, ensure is to find the root cause of the item. Guide the conversation to find the learnings, and avoid blame. Once you find the root cause, and learnings, create an action item or Sprint experiment. If the item to be discussed is a success, celebrate it!
Ask Questions to Drive Discussion
The Scrum team will identify the most helpful changes to improve its effectiveness. An improvement or action item should be created as a team. As an Agile lead, you may need to guide the team to find action items to try.
Asking questions to help guide the discussion to action items will help keep the conversation focused. You can ask questions that help other team members learn about challenges other team members with the different skills face.
The “5 whys” exercise is a great way to drive a discussion at a Sprint Retrospective. Other questions you can ask are:
Is this something that one person or a team should work on?
Can you think of an action item?
Do you need leadership support?
Do we need to try something new related to the issue?
These questions will help keep Scrum team members focused on the Sprint Retrospective item. Additionally, they will identify any areas where you or other team members can provide assistance.
Don’t just Bandage the Side-Effect
One of the side-effects of having a flu is you are tired. You can have a cup of coffee to help you wake up. Two hours later, you are tired again and need more coffee. Not very effective. Addressing the root cause of the flu rather than just the temporary symptoms is significantly more effective.
Cover up side-effects is not a long term solution. The issue may be solved but only for a brief period of time. After constant looking for the quick fix, more issues will just occur. You may even run into doing extra work every Sprint repeating the work around instead of addressing the root.
Performing the “5 whys” exercise is a great way to get to a root of an issue. Once you find the root of the issue, discuss a plan to address the issue. Prioritize the plan in the next Sprint, and continue to work on the root issue till it is addressed. You and your Agile team will see the long term benefits.
Addressing a root issue can also be used as a great learning opportunity. A less experienced team member can take on the issue to learn about the code base. Other Scrum teams may be facing the same issue, and by being the team that solves it, your team will gain goodwill.
Speak up for Others
Retrospectives are meant to be safe places. Issues should be discussed freely and openly. Building a culture where anyone can raise a concern is key with Agile teams. At times though, a team member may fear speaking up.
As an Agile Leader, acting as a neutral party in the Sprint Retrospective, you can bring up issues for others. This will allow the Scrum team member to feel safe, but also bring the issue out in the open. The Sprint Retrospective should be anonymous, so don’t mention who provided the feedback. Even better, if you agree with that the issue needs to be brought up, mention it is something yourself noticed.
When speaking for others, ensure you gather as much information as possible. If you bring up an item, especially one that will be hotly debated, people will look to you to explain what you mean. If you don’t have any, or little information, you will end up requiring the person who brought it up to you to speak.
Creating a safe space will ensure Sprint Retrospectives address as many issues as possible, even the controversial items.
Lead a Focused Retrospective
It can happen to new Agile teams, and experienced mature Agile teams. There may be a time where an improvement is significant enough to warrant a whole Sprint Retrospective session. A focus Sprint Retrospective will give the Agile team time to work on this improvement.
Alert the other leaders on the Scrum team you plan to lead a focused Retrospective. Ideally, give the Scrum team a heads up that the next Sprint Retrospective will be focused on a specific topic. Giving a heads up will allow Agile team members gather their thoughts and potential solutions.
Next, find a Sprint Retrospective style that fits the item you wish to discuss with the team. Using the usual Retrospective template will lead to the team not staying focused on the item. There are many great styles of Retrospectives that you can adapt to your needs.
At the start of the Agile Sprint Retrospective, communicate the item you want to discuss. Provide as details as possible. Explain the style, and the why behind the focused Sprint Retrospective. Discuss the ideal outcome, and the focus should be on action items going forward and how to improve.
Most importantly, communicate that items related to the Sprint Retrospective focus will be discuss. A Agile team member may not fully understand the purpose and go off topic. Consider adding an extra area to your Sprint Retrospective board for “other items”, but remind the team those items will only be discussed after the focus item.
Conclusion
Implementing these tips will maximize the benefits of your Agile Sprint Retrospective. Your Agile team will become stronger and more involved in improvement.
Share in the comments what tips that work for you and your team to improve this important Agile ceremony.
Find these tips helpful? Check out my tips for other Agile ceremonies:
Tips for an Effective Daily Scrum Stand-up
Tips for an Effective Agile Product Backlog Refinement
Tips for an Effective Agile Sprint Review
Tips for an Effective Agile Sprint Planning
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