In this session, we will explore the Improvement Kata as a technique to facilitate better retrospectives. The Improvement Kata contains 4 steps which are a pattern for scientific thinking and acting, with structured practice routines. It is built on the idea that change requires practice, often started with small behavior patterns. Many teams struggle to implement retrospective actions successfully, leading to disillusion and questioning the benefit of the meeting. Or sometimes, these actions are contradictory, causing no long term progress. In this session, we will learn the theory behind the Improvement Kata and practice it by using exercises. It will help you to stimulate continuous improvement in your organization and give you tools to facilitate it.

1. Using the
improvement kata
for
retrospectives
@NickOostvogels

2. Who?
Nick Oostvogels
Agile & Kanban coach

3. Retrospective syndrome
• Lots of actions stay untouched
• Only minor improvements
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4. Blindly implementing each idea will
lead to:
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5. Some actions cannot be finished
because:
- We took a wrong assumption
- It is a long term change
- It is out of control of the team

6. Kata :
a pattern you practice to learn a skill
and mindset.
Improvement kata : a pattern for
improving, adapting and innovating.
It helps to improve continuously
towards a goal instead of random
hunting for improvements.
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7. Improvement Kata
Current
condition
Vision
Target
Condition
PDCA
PDCA
PDCA

8. 1. Formalize the vision
“What is important for us? How
do we want to deliver software?

10. Current
condition
Vision
Target
Condition
PDCA
PDCA
PDCA

11. 2. Use the vision to agree on the
next target condition
“What is the next step we can
take to get closer to the vision?”

12. 3. Use the vision as a cross-check
Does this improvement suggestion
help us to get closer to the vision?

13. Results
• Better focus
• Long term thinking
• Systems thinking
• The vision is used as a referee
during discussions
• It may take several
sprints to get to
the next target condition

14. Inspired by

15. Toyota kata
• How to make improvement part
of our everyday work?
• Use everyone's capabilities
• Create a routine to work
through obstacles

16. Toyota kata
• Using cost/benefit analysis in a
different way
• Avoiding sub optimization
• Longer term target condition
• Experiment to test hypotheses
• Coaching by team leaders

17. Exercise 1
Create a vision:
“How would your group of people
look like in an ideal world?”
Behavior, values, interaction, rules,
…

18. Exercise 2
Use the vision as inspiration
“Brainstorm actions to improve
as a group towards the vision”
From all the ideas, define a 1ste
target condition

19. Exercise 3
Vision poker
“Score all branches of the vision”

20. Summary
How to use in retrospectives
• Create vision and define next
step
• Use vision as inspiration
• Use vision as cross check in a
regular retrospective
• Vision poker

21. Thanks!
http://skycoach.be
nick.oostvogels@skycoach.be
@NickOostvogels