đź’ˇ The purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to find opportunities for improvement in how the team works and the product they build.
Sprint Retrospective is the meeting that happens at the end of the Sprint. Usually on the last day of the Sprint, right after the Review.
Maximum duration: 3 hours (for 1 month sprints) as per the Scrum Guide.
Recommended duration: 1 – 1.5 hours for 2 weeks Sprints.
Agenda #
- Highlight wins and positive moments of the last Sprint, and give kudos to each other.
- Identify challenges and issues that hinder the team’s success, whether they are related to processes, tools, or people.
- Review the current state of the Definition of Done and identify if it needs improvement.
- Agree on one to three actionable items that the team commits to do next Sprint.
- Find volunteers to drive the action items. Drivers are not the sole accountable for completion, the whole team is still accountable. Drivers are there to remind, facilitate, and organize. It cannot always be the Scrum Master.
Attendees #
The whole Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Developers, and Product Owner). That’s it, no one else is invited.
Who leads the meeting: Usually this meeting is facilitated by the Scrum Master as they tend to have the highest skill when it comes to running discussions. Anyone can take on the facilitator’s hat. Some teams prefer to rotate who facilitates the meeting.
Preparation #
Because the Sprint Retrospective is the very last Sprint Event, and it often happens right after Sprint Review, there isn’t much that the team can prepare specifically for this meeting. Especially, considering that you also need to review the Sprint Review that has just happened. This meeting is the most ad hoc in the Sprint.
A few things that may need to be done in advance:
- The facilitator decides how they are going to facilitate the discussion and whether they will be using a specific retrospective format.
- The facilitator prepares tools the team will be using to collect ideas and notes.
- Everyone on the team should think about any specific points they would like to raise if any.
Example #
- The meeting is opened up with a quick icebreaker exercise.
- The team reviews their past Sprint Goal and confirms whether it has been achieved or not. Then the team takes note of it in their documentation.
- Then the team evaluates the Sprint on a scale from 1 to 10 (where 1 is the worst Sprint we had and 10 is the best Sprint we ever had). Each person quickly discusses why they given a certain number. Then the team takes note of it in their documentation.
- The team then reviews the action items they wanted to complete from the previous retrospective: what has been done, what they still need or want to do, and what is no longer relevant.
- The facilitator presents the retrospective format the team will be using this time.
- The team takes 5 minutes to gather ideas based on the format chosen. This revolves around identifying what went well during the Sprint, what wasn’t as good, and what can be improved.
- The facilitator gives all the ideas a quick review to make sure that everyone understands what they are.
- The team then votes to identify which ideas they want to discuss this time since there isn’t enough time to discuss everything.
- For every discussion point, the facilitator guides the discussion to help the team define solutions and action items the team would like to focus on in the next Sprint.
- The team members volunteer to drive the action items.
- The facilitator closes the meeting by summing up what has been identified and agreed upon as well as by thanking the team for participating.
