Presentation on Retrospectives

1. Retrospectives : Moving Forward
by Looking Back

2. Key Elements
• Set the Stage
• Gather Data
• Generate Insights
• Decide What to Do
• Close the Retrospective

3. Time Taken
• 2 hours for a 2 week sprint
• 4 hours for a 4 week sprint
• Add time when there are more people
• Add time when there has been a black swan
event (abnormal termination of sprint, failure
to release a potentially shippable increment)

4. Basic Questions
• What worked?
• What didn’t work?
• What should we continue doing?

5. Iteration 1
• Constraints
– None
• User Story
– Correctly perform at least 1 round of pass the cup
– Note down how many rounds your team successfully
accomplished
• Conditions of Satisfaction
– Cannot pass the cup until you correctly perform the
entire dance
– There are no partial completions allowed

6. The Cup Game
• http://youtu.be/Grb1oa72kmk

7. Setting the Stage
• Activity : Focus On/Focus Off
• Purpose : Help establish a mindset for
productive communication
• Materials
– Flipchart
– Marker
– Index cards
– Pens

8. Iteration 2
• Constraints
– None
• User Story
– Correctly perform at least 1 round of pass the cup
– Note down how many rounds your team successfully
accomplished
• Conditions of Satisfaction
– Cannot pass the cup until you correctly perform the
entire dance
– There are no partial completions allowed

9. Gather Data
• Activity : Mad Sad Glad
• Purpose : Get the feeling facts out on the
table
• Materials
– Colored Index cards or Sticky Notes
– Three flip chart sheets taped to a wall

10. Iteration 3
• Constraints
– Each cup is a 100,000$ Machine. The department that
controls machines will remove machines at random from
your use. You have no choice in this matter.
• User Story
– Correctly perform at least 1 round of pass the cup
– Note down how many rounds your team successfully
accomplished
• Conditions of Satisfaction
– Cannot pass the cup until you correctly perform the entire
dance
– There are no partial completions allowed

11. Generate Insights
• Activity : Patterns and Shifts
• Purpose : Look for links and connections
between facts and feelings
• Materials
– Markers
– Flip chart paper
– Post it Notes of 3 different colors

12. Further Investigation
• Agile Retrospectives Making Good Teams
Great by Esther Darby, Diana Larsen
• Fun Retrospectives
http://leanpub.com/funretrospectives
• Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives - A
Toolbox of Retrospective Exercises by Luis
Gonçalves and Ben Linders