The 7 Deadly Sins of the RetrospectiveSuzanne Morrison
About Me
• Live in Edinburgh, Scotland
• Agile Coach at Skyscanner (global travel search company)
• 20 years experience in the software development industry
• Working with Agile and Scrum for the last 10+ years
About Me
The 7 Deadly Sins
The 7 Deadly Sins
Sloth Greed
WrathLust Envy
Pride
Gluttony
Symptoms & Remedies
Symptoms
& Remedies
1. Sloth
2. Greed Boredom
3. Pride
4. Wrath
5. Gluttony
6. Envy Forgetfulness
7. Lust Ignorance
The 7 Deadly Sins of the Retrospective
Sloth
SLOTH
All talk, no action
Not making any improvements
Remedies for Sloth
Remedies for Sloth
Timeboxing
Use the taskboard
Check the
previous actions
Boredom
BOREDOMLack of energy / enthusiasm
Discussing the same things
Using the same format
Remedies for Boredom
Remedies for boredom
Repeat,
avoid
What slows us
down / speeds
us up?De Bono’s
6 thinking
hats
4 L’sWhat did /
didn’t we do
that fulfilled the
Agile Values
Stop,
start,
continue
http://www.plans-for-retrospectives.com
http://www.funretrospectives.com
Themes
Mix it up!
Pride
prideSelf importance
Not admitting what went wrong
Not acknowledging the good
work of others
Remedies for Pride
Remedies for pride
Be careful about
who you invite
Try 360° appreciation
or “Thankyou’s”
Skilful
facilitation
Wrath
WRATH
Blaming others
Negativity
Conflict
Remedies for Wrath
Remedies for wrath
Balanced facilitation
Retrospective Prime Directive
Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.
Safety check
1
2
3
4
5 Happy to talk about anything
with the group.
I’ll talk about almost anything. Some
things will be harder than others
Happy to share, but will stay away
from controversial stuff.
I don’t feel safe to share things
with the group.
I don’t feel comfortable and
would like to leave!
Gluttony
gluttonyTrying to discuss/resolve everything
Assigning too many actions
Never completing all the actions
Remedies for Gluttony
Remedies for gluttony
1. Prioritize (use dots)
2. Focus (on 1 or 2 things)
3. Accept (you can’t fix everything!)
Forgetfulness
forgetfulness
Forgetting what happened in the last
Sprint
Forgetting what happened in the last
release / project
Remedies for Forgetfulness
Remedies for forgetfulness
Release / project timeline
Don’t skip the
Sprint Review!!
Emotional seismograph
Mailbox
retro
Ignorance
ignorance
Dropping the retrospective when things get too busy
Not having retrospective meetings at all
Remedies for Ignorance
Remedies for ignorance
Educate team on the values
and principles of Agile
Schedule a recurring slot1-1 Coaching
Creating a Great Retrospective
Creating a Great Retrospective
Environment
Opening
ExerciseTools /
PropsData
Gathering
Participants
Decide
what to do
Close
7 Signs of a Great Retrospective
7 Signs of A Great Retrospective!
The whole
team speaks
A feeling of
safetyEnough
time
Previous retro
actions are checked
Agreed
change(s)Recognizing / celebrating
the positive
Constructive and honest
discussions
Be more Agile with Retrospectives
Doing Regular Retrospectives Helps you to be more Agile
• Remember the Agile Value:
“People and Interactions over processes and tools”
• Remember the Agile Principle:
“12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly”
AgileManifesto.org
Thankyou for Listening!
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannem
• @SuzanneMorrison
Thankyou!
Any questions?