The key to Agile is the importance of continuous improvement, and having a regular Agile retrospective is one of the most important practices of Agile development. In the Agile principles page of our website, we talk in detail about the Agile principle that states, "At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly."
To do this, one could implement the framework, such as the one below, to provide structure and keep discussion during the retrospective focused.
Set the stage - get the team ready to engage in the retrospective, perhaps with a warm-up activity such as Plus, Minus, Interesting (5 minutes)
Gather data - create a shared picture of what happened during the retrospective (10 minutes)
Generate insights - discuss what was successful and identify any roadblocks to success (10 minutes)
Decide what to do - identify highest priority items to work on and put measurable goals on those items so they can be completed (15 minutes)
Close the retrospective - reflect on the retrospective and how to improve it, and to appreciate accomplishments of the team and individual interactions (5 minutes)
Here are two videos that we believe reiterate the importance of the Retrospective and also shed light on why, and how we should do them.
In this short video, Jeff Sutherland explains why Scrum teams need to conduct regular retrospectives to help identify the issues that are hurting productivity -- and fix them!
Santeon's Mark Grove shares what a true agile retrospective looks like and explains a popular 5-step method for conducting retrospectives.
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