Agile Software Development Retrospective Secrets

1. Coaching Solutions Agile Software DevelopmentRetrospective Secrets Darrin Ladd V1.0

2. Continuous Improvement

3. Retrospectives = No Value! Same Stuff Every Time! Only a Few People Talk! Always so Negative! Can’t Think of Anything New Every Two Weeks!

4. Cancel Them! Retrospectives

5. So Why Do Retrospectives? • Keep teams improving • Discuss concerns and frustrations • Resolve team and process issues • Positive feedback to each other “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.” Principles behind the Agile Manifesto

6. Kumbayah

7. What Type?

8. How? Keys To Success Everyone Participates Root Causes and Behaviors Patterns, Inconsistencies, and Changes SMART Experiments Review Results and Respond Make It Visible Don’t Let It Get Stale

9. Structure Set the Stage Gather Data Generate Insights Decide What To Do Close

10. Set the Stage

11. Working Agreement Retrospective Working Agreement • Arrive on time • No laptop or smart phone use • Phones on silent • Everyone participates • We are not done until we have at least one time-boxed, actionable, measureable change committed to by the team

12. Ice Breaker Two words to describe… Name a ______ that describes how you feel… Appreciations P.M.A.

13. Gather Data & Generate Insights

14. Approach 1: Vanilla

15. Approach 2: Team Radar

16. Approach 3 - Speedboat

17. Approach 4 – King for a Day

18. Approach 5 – Triple Nickels

19. Facilitation Variations Variations General, open topic VS. Focused topic Write down ideas separately Groups of 3-5 work together on ideas VS. Group into themes silently Group into themes with discussion VS. Only clarifications, detailed discussion next phase Discuss each item in detail VS.

20. Facilitation Variations Tips Symptoms/Outcomes  Root Causes / Behaviors • No Solutions • Watch for Patterns • Watch for Inconsistencies • Ask, Don’t Tell • ‘Thank You’, Not ‘Good Point’ • Write Legibly

21. Decide What To Do

22. Prioritization 1 1 4 4 5 2 3 2 7

23. SMART Experiments SMART imple/specific easurable chievable elevant ime boxed

24. How Do We Execute? • Create a story • Add to definition of done • Add tasks to iteration stories • Identify how to collect the statistics as part of the current process

25. Close the Retrospective

26. Confirm Commitment

27. Document It!

28. Are We Missing Anything? What are we missing?

29. Review Results & Respond

30. Retrospective Prime Directive “Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job he or she could, given what was known at the time, his or her skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand." - Norm Kerth

31. Trust Required

32. Personality Types INFP INTJ ESTJ ENFP ESFJ ENFJ INFJ ESFP INTP ISFJ ENTP ISTP ISFP ISTJ ENTJ ESTP

33. Review Keys Keys To Success Everyone Participates Root Causes and Behaviors Patterns, Inconsistencies, and Changes SMART Experiments Review Results and Respond Make It Visible Don’t Let It Get Stale

34. Thank you! Are there any questions? For more information, please see our site www.BigVisible.com or email me dladd@bigvisible.com

35. Smells It’s boring Same issues or “good” items over and over again Quiet No conflict or debate Same people always talking Some people who never talk Team seems to be “reporting” to someone in attendance (e.g. manager) No specific actionable, measurable changes come out of it Team is always late Always run out of time The issues being identified are outside of the team One team member or group hijacks the retro Facilitator telling as opposed to asking Team waiting for retro to discuss issues

36. Logistics - Location DEPENDS • Team Area • Valuable because: • Information radiators and artifacts right there • Visual cues to help remember • Problematic because: • Unable to step away from day-to-day thoughts – hard to change perspective • Normal distractions of work (phone calls, instant messages, people stopping by, etc…) • Conference Room • Valuable because: • Removed from normal distractions • Easy to bring information radiators and artifacts • Logistics relatively easy • Problematic because: • Constrains thought if room team uses regularly – hard to change perspective • Offsite • Valuable because: • Change perspective so may get more creative thoughts • Problematic because: • Logistical problems with traveling • Loss of comfort because of strangers

37. Logistics – Room Setup Surprisingly Important! • Fred Steele – we are all “environmentally incompetent” because we don’t realize how much our surroundings affect how we feel and act Don’t be crowded! The room should easily hold every one Have people sit close to each other though, don’t spread out all over the room Circle or semi-circle orientation of chairs No big, immovable tables Lots of materials! • People will stop thinking up new ideas when they run out of materials, so make sure everyone has more than enough stickies, index cards, flip charts, etc… Flip charts, whiteboards and other information should be easily seen from all locations Enough room for everyone around areas of collaboration • Don’t ask everyone to work around a single, small flip chart if there are 12 people

38. Logistics – How Long? • DEPENDS • Length of time retrospecting over • Rachel Davies suggests 30 minutes for each week • Size of team • Level of conflict or controversy • Try it and see what you need! You can always end the retrospective early if people identify meaningful improvements and finish their plans before the planned end time. There’s no point prolonging the retrospective once the team has achieved the goal. But too much time usually isn’t the problem. If your team produces only superficial insights and shallow plans, it may be that they need more time.