Communication : Using the Kanban (Board) for a retrospective meeting and follow-up – (manly for distributed teams)

1. Communication : Using the Kanban (Board) for a retrospective
meeting and follow-up – (manly for distributed teams)
Shirly Ronen-Harel
shirly@agilesparks.com
One can use Kanban board for the retrospective documentation and follow-ups over retrospective action items.
One small reminder, first. The retrospective has three main characters:
1. Open discussion of the team – main goal and the most important artifact of the team
2. Action items
3. Acting upon those action items
I have been wondering, what will be the best way to handle a retrospective, which is visible, easy to follow and
actually having the team act upon those action items easily.
It bothers me especially when looking into the differences we have in our distributed teams, mainly visibility to
action items of the retrospective and be able to create an effective discussion over issues raised in the sprint
while the team is not placed at the same room/country.
The idea was, to try and use a Kanban board,( best recommended to use a web Kanban board when dealing with
distributed teams) to overcome those obstacles of establishing an open discussion and its outcomes.
My suggestion is best used for:
1. Creating the issues for discussion – place them on the board
2. Setting the action items
3. Following the actions for next time

2. Let's see how Kanban can answer all of those and meet the three retrospective chanters detailed above:
1. Visualize your flow
a. create a simple Kanban board flow to fit the retrospective structure
b. It can hold columns of: what should we stop doing , continue doing, start doing; or :went well,
needs improvement…..
c. Don’t forget to add an action item and acting columns
2. Ask team members to take some time and start filling out tasks in each of those columns (do not assign
these tasks)
3. Create an open discussion over those issues
4. Decide on action items and place them will the assignee on the action items column
5. Team members follow this board during the sprint , allocates the correct capacity into their product
sprint to be able to complete those tasks , and make sure to move the action items as they progress
6. Next meeting: open the Kanban board and start the meeting by reviewing last session progress.
7. A more improved and mature process can hold types of tasks, deferent columns, and assignments to
areas or improvements, whatever…..…..
Enjoy….