Emel Yayla - Agile Coach // Allianz Türkiye
Our agile working system HEY! offers us various methods to improve your work. Retrospective is one of the most frequently used. Let's talk about retrospective itself, and its importance.
The agile system encourages retrospective meetings to help teams solve problems and improve themselves.
Let's look at the definition first. Our dictionary says “Team members discuss team dynamics, how they can work more effectively as a team, and at the end, action plans are created for improving solutions. The Sprint retrospective meeting focuses on the process.”
The 'Sprint Retrospective' at work allows the team to look back at the 'sprint', audit itself and plan for improvements that can be used in future sprints.
In these meetings, the team reviews the Sprint in terms of individuals, interactions, processes, tools and the ‘Definition of Done’. By finding and fixing the little things together, they become the team that works more pleasantly and creates more value in the long run.
This meeting is held after the 'review', just before the planning. It is team specific only and no outside participants are accepted. There is a time limit. At the end of the meeting, it is recommended to determine actions and include at least one of them in the sprint backlog.
Now that we know about the retrospective, let's get to the benefits.
- It provides an environment to celebrate success and reflect on failures.
- With its positive and sharing atmosphere, it encourages participation and sharing of views.
- During the meeting, all team members are given an equal say, regardless of their roles and responsibilities, without any hierarchy.
- Team members discuss improvements to be included in the next 'sprint'.
- It encourages continuous improvement with small steps within the team, and supports the adoption of a culture of continuous improvement throughout the company.
- Various techniques can be used to gain maximum benefit from the meeting and increase participation.
- In this way, it is possible to get to the root cause of the problems experienced, to bring the whole team to the same point, to visualize it, and to make it easier to create new ideas.
- In addition, a more colorful and fun meeting occurs.
Now I will briefly talk about the most popular retro techniques;
Start-Stop-Continue: One of the most popular methods, it helps teams focus on concrete actions they can take to improve collaboration, processes and results.
Sailboat Retro: Makes a team think about obstacles, risks, good practices and where the team wants to go.
Sailboat Retro: Makes a team think about obstacles, risks, good practices and where the team wants to go.
Mad-Sad-Glad: Focuses on practice, behavior, communication and relationships based on its emotional effects on team members.
In addition to a large number of techniques, all these activities can be differentiated and customized according to the needs of the team, and more fun, targeted and gamified applications can emerge. As Agile Office, we often experience this with the teams we work with.
As a result, Retrospectives are indispensable meetings to improve the process, to give the team a chance to express their happiness, discontent and suggestions, to encourage continuous improvement.
If you want to do additional reading, you can take a look at these resources.
- https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-a-sprint-retrospective
- https://dzone.com/articles/11-ideas-to-spice-up-your-retrospective
- https://makersturkiye.com/agile-retrospective-yontemleri-nelerdir/
P.S. You can contact us by clicking here to share your experiences and ask questions about the agile working method.
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