Agile retros talk at xpman 2013

1. Agile Retrospectives :
5 Golden Rules
Luke Brabin & Juan Pozo

2. Agile Retro. What’s that?
A special meeting at the end of a period of
work where the team steps back and:
• Examines the way they work
• Analyse and identify ways to improve

3. Is your retro a waste of time?
Lack of...
• Focus
• Participation
• Insight
• Buy-in from the team / manager
• Following through on actions

4. ...why should you really care?
• Continuous team improvement!
• Over time, they help good teams become
great teams.

5. The 5 Golden Rules
• Set the stage
• Gather data
• Generate insights
• Decide what to do
• Close the retrospective

6. 1) Set The Stage
• Establish peoples focus / topic for this retro
• Communicate the plan for the meeting
• Get everyone involved and ready
• Remove other concerns and distractions

7. 1) Set The Stage - Technique

8. 2) Gather Data
• Data is relevant to the FOCUS set on the STAGE
• Collate both objective and subjective experiences
• Get the facts out and visible, e.g. Whiteboard
• Both positive and negative outcomes

9. 2) Gather Data - Technique
Creative data categorising
technique - Top Gear style
‘Cool Wall’.

10. 3) Generate Insight
• Discuss why the team needs to improve within
established facts
• Understand influences and root causes
• Identify patterns or toxic practices
• Share awareness of problems

11. 3) Generate Insight - Technique
Insights written on
board next to data

12. 4) Decide what to do
• Transfer discussion to solution focused action
• Agree one or two actions or experiments to
fix an agreed problem
• Team commitment to shared actions
• Target realistic and tangible outcomes with
energy

13. 5) Close the retrospective
• Re-iterate outcomes
• Confirm communication of actions (add
to sprint board)
• Identify ways to make next retro better
Retro actions clearly
visible on sprint
board

14. Remember...be creative!
Thanks (:
Retrospective – 5 Golden Rules