INTROSPECTION & RETROSPECTION | Agile Story 25
Introspection is observing one’s own mental and emotional process. It means looking inward to examine one’s own thoughts and emotions. To understand better let’s say this is a process of looking inward and examining one’s conscious thoughts and feelings. This is very near to human self-reflection and self-discovery but is different from external observation.
Hence, introspection involves looking inward to try to understand yourself, but it should never involve looking outward. For example, we can learn about our internal states by asking other people to share their views or by looking in the mirror, but these are not the process of forms of introspection. Introspection is also thought to mainly consist of mental ways of looking inward. We may think about, ponder on, or self-reflect on our inner experiences.
An introspective person is someone who tries to understand their mind, thoughts, feelings, and inner workings regularly by looking within himself. They might engage in meditation or other contemplative practices. You might pause to self-reflect when something is bothering you, or when you are just curious to learn more about yourself to understand “What was really going on?” within your mind.
Whereas RETROSPECTIVE is having a slightly different meaning. It’s like looking back to a past event or situations. If you think you have made any mistake, best is to identify and accept them quickly, make a learning out of it and help others and yourself in improving or not to repeating the same.
While following Sprints in Agile, we always do Sprint Retrospectives, which is the last event of the Sprint with a duration timeboxed within 3 hours for one-month Sprint. The goal of the meeting is to discuss what happened during the development cycle and release process. By reflecting on what went well which we can preserve, and what could have gone better which we need to improve, the team take these learnings into the next cycle. This helps in continuous improvement both in the quality of processes and output.
Whenever we participate in AGILE RETROSPECTIVE, we always guide ourselves by answering the following questions:
- What went well?
- What didn’t go well?
- What can be improved?
We try to roll out the improvement plan from the learning of the last Sprint. Hence don’t you think whenever we are participating in the AGILE RETROSPECTIVE, a part of us must be truly involved in the SELF INTROSPECTION?
Above table clearly states that both the processes are completely different. But let’s take a scenario. Suppose I am the developer of one complex user story which was having dependency on the procurement of license of a third-party product. Both me and my scrum master were in touch with the POC from the procurement team who was dealing with the third party. At the dying moment, the concerned POC went to a planned marriage leave which we were not aware earlier. On the last day before the leave, he introduced his replacement over an email but because of the conflicting priorities of the new POC, the license could not be obtained in time. Hence, we are forced to move the story to the next Sprint.
All my hard work could not make any impact. I became quite frustrated. While I went to the Sprint Retrospective, I felt like pointing my fingers. “The scrum master needs to be more pro-active while coordinating with the procurement teams” in the “WHAT CAN BE IMPROVED” section.
But will that really help the team to roll out any improvement plan. Don’t I need a SELF-INTROSPECTION before going to the RETROSPECTIVE meeting to identify, understand and acknowledge my frustration? Then only I can identify the real problem, take the person out of it to focus on the real cause and hence can contribute on a constructive improvement plan.
Then probably I will be able to think something like “Need to have the leave plan of the POCs of the external teams with whom we are having dependencies” in the “WHAT CAN BE IMPROVED” section. Hence having an idea of SELF-INTROSPECTION is extremely important in both personal and professional lives and is critical for SPRINT-RETROSPECTION also.
This is the continuation of sharing our Agile Stories/Thoughts Series. I strongly recommend referring to the links below for previous insightful blogs from our #teamagile in IBM
#letscreate2succeed, #teamHCM, #manage2succeed, #ibmconsulting, #teamagile
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are all my personal opinion and does not in any way should be considered as an advice or suggestion. Every organization will have different needs depending on culture, preferences, size, etc.
This is the continuation of sharing our Agile Stories/Thoughts Series. I strongly recommend referring to the links below for previous insightful blogs from our #teamagile in IBM
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.