How to conduct a retrospective?

Required tools

• Azure DevOps — The Retrospective extension in DevOps is used as a support tool for the meeting.

Plan the meeting

1. 1.Schedule the meeting at the right time

   Schedule the retrospective after the sprint review and before planning the next sprint, so that responsibility rests with the project manager.

2. 2.Cut to the correct length

   Adjust the meeting length to the duration of the sprint: typically 45 minutes for a one-week sprint, 1.5 hours for two weeks, 2.25 hours for three weeks, and 3 hours for one month.

3. 3.Set up the meeting in DevOps

   Use the Retrospective extension in DevOps as a support tool to gather input from the team before and during the meeting.

Follow the agenda's five steps

1. 4.Set the goal

   Establish the goals for the meeting in advance—for example, improving stand-ups, communication with stakeholders, or operating rules.

2. 5.Collect data

   Draw on everyone's experience and perspective from the sprint to create a shared pool of information.

3. 6.Develop insights

   Identify useful patterns in the information collected, and always ask why things happened the way they did.

4. 7.Determine the next step

   Identify the problems and challenges the team needs to address, and create a concrete plan for how they can successfully tackle each one.

5. 8.Conclude the retrospective

   Summarize the meeting, thank the participants, and consider how future retrospectives can be improved.

Use Start-Stop-Continue

1. 9.Ask what went well and what didn’t

   Have each team member identify what went well during the sprint and what did not go according to plan—without looking for someone to blame.

2. 10.Ask what the team learned

   Discuss what the team learned during the sprint that could improve the way they work.

3. 11.Review the definition of “done”

   Check whether the definition of “done” is still appropriate for the team, or whether it should be tightened as the team gains more experience.

4. 12.Share the knowledge at the end of the project

   At the end of the project, the knowledge gained by the project group is shared with all of ProsessPilotene as part of the final report.