The Retrospective Prime Directive
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. and in German: Egal was wir heute herausfinden, wir wissen und glauben ernsthaft, dass jeder sein bestes gegeben…
Using the Cartoon Story Board Technique in Retrospectives
Cartoon Story Board (also called Comic Story Board) is one of my favourite creativity techniques and it can be used to good effect in retrospectives. I have used it in the “setting the stage” phase of retrospectives to help a team to frame the key question to be tackled during the retrospective, and for helping…
The Anatomy of a Release Retrospective
As Scrum practitioners, we are used to short and sharp retrospectives at the end of each Sprint. Sprint retrospectives, taking 1-2 hours, can yield valuable results, enabling the Scrum team to improve its process. Typically these retrospectives yield lots of ideas, which are then prioritised and only the top 2-3 are actually actioned. I If…
Podcast from Retrospective Facilitators Gathering in Taos, New Mexico
Back in April I attended the wonderful Retrospective Facilitators Gathering in the equally wonderful Taos, New Mexico. During the final evening I recorded a podcast with many of the gathering’s participants. The podcast took the form of an informal round table discussion and the topics included looking back at the gathering, externalizing thinking and group/collective learning….
Brain-writing Retrospectives
There are many techniques that can be applied during Scrum retrospectives. The excellent book “Agile Retrospectives” by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen has several suggestions. As a Scrum coach I try to keep retrospectives fresh and interesting by using different techniques and I regularly dip into this book for inspiration. One of the simplest retrospective…