James Shore

in 99 words

Start with Kerth's Prime Directive. Everyone makes mistakes; the Prime Directive reminds us to support, not attack, our colleagues.

Have participants brainstorm ideas in six categories: enjoyable, frustrating, puzzling; same, more less. Write each idea on a card.

Next, place the cards on a whiteboard. Move the cards so the most similar are closest together. Everybody participates; nobody speaks.

Circle and name the resulting categories. Choose one, then brainstorm root causes and solutions. Pick one: it's your retrospective objective. Follow through in the iteration to come.

When retrospectives get boring, try other formats. This is just a starting place.

as haiku

the roses, flooded--
consternation, solution,
implementation

Commentary

Mistakes

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Inside This Section

• Retrospectives
• Types of Retrospectives
• How to Conduct an Iteration Retrospective
• Step 1: The Prime Directive
• Step 2: Brainstorming
• Step 3: Mute Mapping
• Step 4: Retrospective Objective
• After the Retrospective
• Questions
  • What if management isn't committed to making things better?
  • Despite my best efforts as facilitator, our retrospectives always degenerate into blaming and arguing. What can I do?
  • We come up with good retrospective objectives, but then nothing happens. What are we doing wrong?
  • Some people won't speak up in the retrospective. How can I encourage them to participate?
  • One group of people (such as testers) always gets outvoted in the retrospective. How can we meet their needs, too?
  • Our retrospectives always take too long. How can we go faster?
  • The retrospective takes so much time. Can we do it less often?
• Results
• Contraindications
• Alternatives
• Further Reading