fast then faster - a retrospective on retrospectives
TRANSCRIPT
Fast thenFaster
A Retrospectiveon Retrospectives
Dan Hardiker
Who is this guy?
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Dan HardikerCTO / Co-founder of AdaptavistCTO MentorDevoxx BE & UKDevoxx4KidsThe occasional roller disco at festivals
Passionate about teams and community
What? Why? Who? When?
What is it?
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A chance to step back and reflectA safe harbor
A barometer for the health of a teamCommunicationTransparencyEfficiencyReactiveness
A tool not just for teams, but also for HR!
Purpose of a Retrospective
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Foster a desire for improvementCulture of introspection
Increase empowermentReduce frustration
Who are they for?
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Not only for Scrum / Agile teamsUseful for any team that has a degree of autonomy / control over their processes
See “high performing teams”
Duration & Frequency
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It depends – teams should decide themselves based on:Rate, Size & Amount of ChangeExperience of the Team & Experience Working Together
30 minutes every other Sprint isn’t uncommon
The Rules
The Prime Directive
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"Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.”
Norm Kerth, Project Retrospectives: A Handbook for Team Review
This is not about the blame game
Scope of a Retrospective
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Don’t dwell on things you can’t change / improveTake offline one offs you can’t plan for, or that are unlikely to reoccur
The focus should be the increment, but may also include:Code / FeaturesThe process itselfExternal Factors• E.g. support / distractions / micro management
Change has to be positive - posit questions positivelyWhat went well? What could we do better?What was useful? What could be more useful?
Doing it wrong
Bad Retrospectives
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Dominating PersonalitiesAvoid senior people driving the conversationWatch out for experience being used as a privilege
Dismissing OpinionsAssume every suggestion is valid before dismissingFairly consider everything, watch out for bias
Exclusive FormatsDon’t get stuck in a routineSupport different ways of communicating• Verbal, PostIt, Email, Proxied
How to Reduce the Value
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Rush themUndermine the importanceFew people participatingNeglecting the outputIdle participation
You should get out as much as you put in
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Flickr photo by Donnie Ray Jones
Get upset!
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Power up!
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LeadershipTime to make yourself redundant
DiversityTeam mixMix it up, rotate roles
Power up!
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Break BoundariesBe uncomfortable
Fail is OKThink about the impact of failureIf it always works, you rest assured
Power up!
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Hold retrospectives on retrospectives!Leave a short amount at the end of each retrospective to discuss the retrospective process itself
Power up!
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Are we nearly there yet?Never!Good enough is the enemy, when pursuing perfection!
How can your next sprint be better?
Questions
References
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http://retrospectivewiki.org/index.php?title=The_Prime_Directivehttps://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2014/april/key-elements-of-sprint-retrospectivehttps://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2013/december/retrospective-the-fun-way
Thanks!@adaptavist / @dhardiker