Structuring the Retrospective

What is the goal?

Set the Stage 5% 6 minutes Learn from the issues from the previous sprint and uncover root causes

Gather data 30-50% 40 minutes

Who will attend?
Generate Insights 20-30% 25 minutes The Scrum Team and the Product Owner

Decide what to do 10% 12 minutes How long?

This is our first time doing this style of discussion so lets make it 2 hours
Close the retrospective 10% 12 minutes

Shuffle time 10-15% 17 minutes Where do we hold the retrospective?

Lets have it in the conference room this time. Outside would be nice but
Total 100% 120 minutes it’s raining today.

How will we setup the room?

Lets hold it in a room where we can sit in a semi-circle and people can
easily move around
Activities

Encourage Equal Participation

Focus the Conversation

Encourage New Perspectives

 Set the Stage: Check In

Purpose
Help people put aside other concerns and focus on the
retrospective. Help people articulate what they want from
the retrospective. Ask one
question that
Time needed each person can
answer with a
Five minutes, depending on the size of the group. word or short
phrase.
Description
After welcoming the participants and reviewing the goal
and agenda, the retrospective leader asks one brief
question. Each person answers in round-robin fashion.
Set the Stage: Focus On/Off

Purpose
Help establish a mind-set for productive
communication. Help participants set aside blaming
and judgment—and fear of blaming and judgment.
Focus On Focus Off
• Inquiry • Advocacy
Time needed
• Dialog • Debate
• Conversation • Argument
Ten minutes, depending on the size of the group. • Understanding • Defending

Description
After describing those patterns, the participants
discuss what they mean for the retrospective.
 Set the Stage: ESVP

Purpose

Focus people on the work of the retrospective.

Explorers are eager to discover new ideas and insights.
Understand people’s attitudes to the retrospective. They want to learn everything they can about the
iteration/release/project.
Time needed
Shoppers will look over all the available
Fifteen minutes. information, and will be happy to go home with
one useful new idea.
Description
Vacationers aren’t interested in the work of the
Each participant reports (anonymously) his or her retrospective, but are happy to be away from the daily
grind. They may pay attention some of the time, but
attitude toward the retrospective as an Explorer, they are mostly glad to be out of the office.
Shopper, Vacationer, or Prisoner (ESVP). The
Prisoners feel that they’ve been forced to attend
retrospective leader collects the results and creates a and would rather be doing something else.
histogram to show the data, and then guides a
discussion about what the results mean for the group.
Gather Data

Gathering data creates a shared picture of what happened during the iteration, release, or project.
Without data, the team is speculating on what changes and improvements to make. These activities
help the team view and integrate different types of data.

Activities
• Timeline
• Mad Sad Glad
• Satisfaction Histogram
• Speed Boat
 Gather Data: Timeline

Purpose
Stimulate memories of what happened during the increment of work. Create a picture of the work from many
perspectives. Examine assumptions about who did what when. See patterns or when energy levels changed. Use this
for “just the facts” or facts and feelings.

Time Needed
Thirty to ninety minutes, depending on the size of the group and the length of the increment of work.

Description
Group members write cards to represent memorable, personally meaningful, or otherwise significant events during
the iteration, release, or project and then post them in (roughly) chronological order. The retrospective leader
supports the team to discuss the events to understand facts and feelings during the iteration, release, or project.
 Gather Data: Mad Sad Glad

Purpose
Get the feeling facts out on the table.

Time needed
Twenty to thirty minutes, depending
on the size of the group.

Description
Individuals use colored cards or
sticky notes to describe times during
the project where they were mad,
sad, or glad.
 Gather Data: Satisfaction Histogram

Purpose
Highlight how satisfied team members are with a focus area. Provide a visual picture of current status in a
particular area to help the team have deeper discussions and analysis. Acknowledge differences in perspective
among team members.

Time needed
Ten minutes.

Description
Team members use a histogram to gauge individual and group satisfaction with practices and process.
Gather Data: Satisfaction Histogram - Example

How do you feel about the Quality of our

product?
5. I think we have the best quality product possible
4. Our quality is pretty good but we could use some improvement
3. It’s so-so. We still have bugs being reported
2. Our Quality is very poor and needs a major improvement
1. Quality? What Quality?
Gather Data: Satisfaction Histogram
 Gather Data: Speed Boat

Purpose
Help team members point out issues they may feel help
them or hinder them.

Time Needed
15 minutes.

Description
Team members approach a drawing of a speed boat on the
water with anchor and write out things that associate with
different parts of the boat as if the boat was the
retrospective. What things slow them down or speed them
up.
Generate Insights

Generating insights makes time for the team to evaluate their data and make meaningful information
from it. These activities help the team interpret the data, analyze it, generate insights, and uncover
the implications for change.

Brainstorming/Filtering

Five Whys

Prioritize with Dots

Learning Matrix
Generate Insights: Brainstorming/Filtering

Purpose
Generate a large number of ideas and filter them
against a defined set of criteria.

Time Needed
Twenty minutes.

Description
Team members generate ideas using traditional
brainstorming, then test whether each idea is
applicable to the current situation.
Generate Insights: Five Whys

Purpose
Discover underlying conditions that contribute to an issue.
Time Needed
Fifteen to twenty minutes.
Description
Team members work in pairs or small groups to look
at issues. They ask “Why?” 5 times to get beyond
habitual thinking
Generate Insights: Prioritize with Dots

Purpose
To gauge how the group prioritizes a long list of
candidate changes, proposals, and so forth.

Time Needed
Five to twenty minutes depending on the number of
options and the size of the group.

Description
Team members prioritize the top issues, ideas, or
proposals.
Generate Insights: Learning Matrix

Purpose
Help team members find what’s significant
in their data.

Time Needed
Twenty to twenty-five minutes.

Description
Team members look at four perspectives on
their data to brainstorm a list of issues
quickly.
Decide What to Do

Deciding What to Do moves the team’s focus to the next iteration. In these activities the team members
develop proposals for action, identify the highest priority actions, create detailed plans for
experiments, and set measurable goals to achieve the results.

Activities
• SMART Goals
• Circle of Questions
 Decide What to Do: SMART Goals

Purpose
Translate ideas into priorities and action plans.
Develop specific measurable actions.

Time needed
Twenty minutes

Description
Focus the team’s attention on developing goals that
are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and
Timely. Goals that have these characteristics are
more likely to reach fruition.
 Decide What to Do: Circle of Questions

Purpose
Help team choose an experiment or action steps for the next iteration, particularly when team members need to
listen to one another.

Time needed
10 minutes, depending on team size.

Description
• Team members engage in a question asking and answering process to reach consensus on next steps.
Close the Retrospective

Closing the retrospective provides moments for continuous improvement, for reflecting on what
happened during the retrospective, and for expressing appreciation. Activities from other chapters
(Satisfaction Histogram, Team Radar, Learning Matrix, and Short Subjects), the four-step debriefing
method, and other suggestions from the appendix on debriefing can be adapted for use in closing, as
well as the activities listed in this chapter.

Activities
• +/Delta
• Appreciations
Close the Retrospective: +/Delta

Purpose
• To retrospect on the retrospective and
identify strengths and improvements.

Time Needed
• Ten minutes, depending on the size of the group.

Description
• The team identifies strengths (do more of) and
changes for the next retrospective.
Close the Retrospective: Appreciations

Purpose

To allow team members to notice and appreciate
each other. End the retrospective on a positive
note.
Time Needed
Say the name and then say,
“I appreciate you for__________.” Fill in the blank
with something about the person or something he or
she did. You can briefly describe the impact on you.

Ten minutes, depending on the size of the group.

Here’s an example:
Description
“Jeyakumar, I appreciate you for helping me learn
Team members appreciate other team members the .net. You really helped me get up to speed.”
for helping them, contributing, to the team,
solving a problem, etc. Offering an appreciation
is optional