Presentation from Kansas City Developer Conference, June 25, 2015. Adam England discusses common problems in agile retrospectives, and provides solutions for getting to the root cause, and making your retrospectives fun again.

1. Renovate
Your
Retrospectives
Adam England
@adamnengland

2. Titanium Sponsors
Platinum Sponsors
Gold Sponsors

3. About Me

4. About You

5. Are Retrospectives
Worth Doing?

7. 5 problems to
watch for

8. 1. Failing to meet
retrospective goals.

9. Solution #1
Accountability

10. Discuss Goals at Every Standup

11. Assign an owner to every goal

12. Apply SMART criteria when
choosing goals.
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound

13. Solution #2
Reconsider your sprint commitment

14. Solution #3
1 Retro = 1 Goal

15. Solution #4
Do it more.

16. 1. Failing to meet retrospective
goals.
2. Retrospectives take
way too long.

17. Solution #1
Preparation is Key

18. Solution #2
Choose one topic for a deep-dive

20. 1. Failing to meet retrospective
goals.
2. Retrospectives take way too
long.
3. Being too nice.

22. You can’t make everyone happy in every retro
All the topics
we could
discuss
The topics we
have time for

23. Solution #1
Democratize

24. Limit observations to 3 stickies?
Dot vote to
narrow down topics?
Parking lot for topics that
only have 1 mention?

25. 1. Failing to meet retrospective
goals.
2. Retrospectives take way too
long.
3. Being too nice.
4. Missing the forest
for the trees.

26. Look at your metrics

27. Look at trends, not numbers
What have you done
for me lately?

28. 1. Failing to meet retrospective
goals.
2. Retrospectives take way too
long.
3. Being too nice.
4. Missing the forest for the
trees.
5. I’m Bored.

29. Changing
Retrospective Plans
may not be enough

30. Solution #1
Sprint One
General Sprint Retro
Sprint Two
Deep Dive - Single Issue Retro
Sprint Three
General Sprint Retro
Sprint Four
Quarterly Goal review Retro

31. Solution #2
New Blood

32. 1. Failing to meet retrospective
goals.
2. Retrospectives take way too
long.
3. Being too nice.
4. Missing the forest for the
trees.
5. Boredom
6. Not asking team for
feedback

33. 1. Failing to meet retrospective
goals.
2. Retrospectives take way too
long.
3. Being too nice.
4. Missing the forest for the
trees.
5. Boredom
6. Not asking team for feedback

34. aengland@rednovalabs.com
@adamnengland
adamnengland.com

35. Questions?