Key Components of a Great Retrospective
A sprint retrospective, often referred to simply as a "retro," stands as a valuable tool in the Agile toolbox that brings synergy to teams. It serves as a dedicated time for teams to reflect on what has worked, not the work outcomes, but on their interactions, tools, and processes used since the last retro. These regular reviews are an essential part of team collaboration and act as a great measure to assess the health of your team.
Many teams view the retrospective as the most valuable Scrum Ceremony because it allows them to take a step back and focus on improving how they collaborate and work together. While the retrospective may seem straightforward—discussing what to stop, start, and continue—its effectiveness depends on several hidden key elements. Here are a few important components to help make your retrospective as effective as possible.
Tools and Templates
There are a variety of tools available to assist you in performing a retrospective. One especially valuable tool is Miro. Miro has features available to facilitate better retrospectives, such as a variety of out-of-the-box templates, voting capabilities, a timer to manage the amount of time to spend on a particular topic, and even the ability to play music. The music feature is a great way to decompress and relax as the team reflects on the past iterations.
Pro tip: Establishing a template to provide consistency and structure will help the team stay on task and invoke engagement in the retro. Conversely, switching the template from time to time will prevent the meeting structure from becoming stale. Both of these approaches will allow you to host a variety of topics to keep your team engaged and support their contributions to the meeting.
The Value of Anonymity in a Retrospective
Anonymity can create a more candid and fruitful form of discussion during retrospectives, particularly for new or shy team members. For example, a newly formed team may want to start retrospectives in an anonymous setting, once they feel more comfortable, they may move to an open setting. In Miro, if a team member is new or even perhaps shy, the anonymity feature can allow for topics to be discussed without judgment or adversity, particularly if it is a proposed topic that is voted on by multiple teammates to be up for discussion. Often, it's surprising for a teammate to see that their colleagues may be thinking or feeling the same way they do.
The Scrum values – Openness, Commitment, Focus, Respect, and Courage are the foundation for the behavior and practices in Scrum. These values suggest and encourage teams to feel supported to openly communicate. Ultimately, your aim is to create an environment that supports all of the Scrum values that work to foster teamwork and growth.
Voting on Topics
Offering teammates the opportunity to vote on topics is a helpful way to identify the most pressing or critical topics the team is hoping to address in the retro. Your team may start by defining the topics that they would like to vote on.
The voting feature in Miro is a great way to isolate the topics that the team feels should be discussed by allowing the team to vote on a topic using a configuration to define the maximum number of votes submitted by each team member. Voting on topics is essential as it allows you to get a sense of the entire team’s voice without bias.
Time Constraints
A key component of performing a productive retrospective session is ensuring that time spent on a topic is well balanced. For example, you wouldn’t want a particular topic to extend beyond a reasonable amount of time as this would inhibit your ability to address other topics that need to be discussed.
One instrumental feature is the ability to set a timer so the team can visualize staying on topic within the allotted time frame. If a topic is highly ranked by the team, it may be necessary to extend the time to support discussion. The topic could also be further deconstructed for a more fine-tuned focus.
The Importance of Documenting Action Items
To ensure your retrospectives are adding value, it’s important to document the action items that a team agrees to take on during a retrospective to improve their next iteration of work.
Action items are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time Based. In short, they are changes your team has decided to implement to improve on the topic at hand. There are a few guidelines to consider when creating an action item.
First, decide if the action item is realistic and reasonable to accomplish. Next, ensure that the action item is clearly defined. For example, outline the proposed change or next steps in some form of documentation. Try not to set complex goals that make it difficult to track progress. The action item should also be fully visible to everyone on your team.
It is important to identify an owner of the action item to create accountability to support the change. The action item may also be discussed or reiterated in your Daily Scrum or Standup meeting.
Measurability to Define Success of the Implemented Change
Once the action item has been documented and the change has been implemented, discuss the changes in your next retrospective with your team to ensure you capture the impact of the change.
Measuring the success of implementing an action item is a key component of a valuable retrospective. If the team sees a positive result, they may want to continue to expand on the development of the decided path. If they see a negative result, they may want to change course altogether.
Final Thoughts
There are many tools and techniques that can be used to add value and provide structure to a retro. The primary goal is to keep it fun, lively, and interesting and to spark passion and encourage interaction with teammates. A great retro allows teammates to develop a relationship and feel comfortable communicating with each other.
It’s through these valuable discussions that your team can continue to work to identify and iterate on any challenges or opportunities for growth and improvement.
