What is the Sprint Retrospective

The Sprint Retrospective is a meeting of the Scrum Team which purpose is to improve collaboration. The participants discuss how well they worked together and wether tools and Readiness Criteria helped them to obtain the finished Product. By the end of the meeting, the participants compose an improvement plan, which will be implemented in the next Sprint.

Without a retrospective, no one seems to be wondering whether everything is OK. Nobody is going to ask the opinion about the workflow. The reason of errors is not considered to be in it, but in the actions of employees. Subordinates usually keep silent, even if they do not like something . Eventually, these innuendoes will affect the result. The Sprint Retrospective eliminates this.

Meeting of the entire Scrum Team on equal terms

The Product Owner, the Development Team and the Scrum-master present on the Sprint Retrospective. They participate in conversation on equal terms.

Meeting is mandatory for all. It is impossible to coordinate the Readiness Criteria without the Product Owner and without the full Team presence to know about all the problems and omissions. The Scrum-master is also involved in the discussion-he shares his impressions about the work on the principles of Scrum with other participants of the meeting.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema(@kellysikkema) on Unsplash

The editors in editorial office hold a Sprint Retrospective once a week. Editor-in-chief in the role of the Product Owner, the four editors and the Scrum-master present at the meeting.

At one such meeting, the editor-in-chief said there were too many tasks for now and offered to transfer them to the Scrum Board. The editors discussed how to work with the tool and implemented it in the next Sprint. Now the tasks and workflow are always in full view.

All the participants speak on the Sprint Retrospective

Helps to improve the workflow

At the meeting, the participants assess how the work was done in the Sprint, how the tools have been suitable and what relationships have developed within the Team. Immediately, the Product Owner and the Development Team decide whether they need to revise the Readiness Criteria or they are enough to stop the hack work and make a truly finished Product.

As a result, each participant of the meeting clearly understands what was good and what went wrong. Based on this understanding, they come up with a plan to improve the workflow in the next Sprint, which will help to increase the efficiency of the Team and the quality of the Product.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao(@nate_dumlao) on Unsplash

The Sprint Retrospective takes place in a friendly atmosphere. Even if something failed in the Sprint, at the meeting no one is looking for the guilty person-they solve the problem only.

At the next Sprint Retrospective the editor said it was inconvenient for her to collect the tasks for the illustrator from all other members and transfer them in a stack. More over, it significantly slows down the rest of the work. All agreed to turn to the illustrator directly. As a result, the speed of work increased in the next Sprint.

The meeting participants think about improving the processes, tools and interaction.

Lasts not more than three hours

The Sprint Retrospective is carried out after the Sprint Review and before the next Sprint Planning. If the Sprint lasted for a month, the meeting lasts for three hours. If the Sprint took shorter time it can take less time for its Retrospective.

The Scrum-master ensures the participants of the meeting keep within the allotted hours, although he is involved in the discussion. At the same time, he does not allow to lose focus.

The editors are gathered in the morning on Thursdays, communicate for about an hour. If they start, for instance, talk about spending their private time, the Scrum-master returns them to the workflow discussion.

At the meeting, the participants do not waste time on solving the problems in relationships and personal issues.

The Sprint Retrospective is a useful meeting. On it the Scrum Team discusses how to improve the workflow process and the climate within the Team to improve the Product itself.

We have already told how the rest of the meetings are held in Scrum: Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review.

Prompts

Remember

• The Sprint Retrospective is a meeting on equal terms for the entire Scrum Team.
• The participants of the meeting discuss how the work proceeded in the Sprint and how to improve it.
• The meeting lasts not more than three hours.

Original text:

http://www.agilebasics.ru/sprint-retrospective/

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