Agile Retrospective Activities

Paulo Caroli

agileretroactivities.blogspot.com

Paulo Caroli Agile Coach

pcaroli@thoughtworks.comTwitter: @paulocaroli

Agenda

• Typical Retrospective Agenda

• Many activities

• Q & A

Typical Retrospective Agenda

• Ice breaker

• Set the context

• Prime directive

• Group participation

• Data gathering

• Data grouping

• Selecting notes to talk about

• Conversation

• Action Items

• Next steps

Opening

Middle

Closing

Zip Zap Zoom

Ping Pong

Setting the context

9/18/2012

Prime Directive

The 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.

Creating Safety

ESVP activity

ESVP Activity

– Explorer

• eager to learn new ideas and insights

– Shoppers

• will look over all the information and will be happy to go

how with a new idea

– Vacationer

• Are not interested in the work, but are happy to be away

from the daily grind

– Prisoner

• Fell like have been forced to attend

Well, Not so well, Puzzle

Happiness Radar

Starfish

A data gathering activity to foster the

thinking around practices and the value

the team get from it.Retrospective activities

Paulo Caroli

Activities before

• Ice breaker

• Group participation

• Context setting

16

The Starfish

• The starfish divides the board into 5 areas

18

Keep Doing

• What are the good things you like?

• Think about things you would miss if they

were removed; a particular practice,

technique, technology, person, role, etc.

• An example: Running tests locally before

committing (This prevented me from breaking

the build and delaying the branch cut).

Less Of

• What are practices that might need a bit

more refining--or reduction--in the current

circumstance?

• Think about things that do add value, but

would be better with a little less.

• An example: Stand ups have become status

meetings and so there should be less of

talking to one person (and more of talking to

each other) during them.

More Of

• What are the things that you want to try

more?

• Think about things you believe are not

necessarily taking full advantage of.

• A good example is that maybe people are pair

programming but knowledge transfer might

be gained by doing more of swapping

programming partners.

Stop Doing

• What is not adding much value?

• Think about things you believe are not useful

anymore.

• An example: Perhaps writing status reporting

email at the end of the day (because now the

team is using an awesome tool which already

conveys the current status information)

Start Doing

• What are the new things that you want to try?

• Think about new things you want to suggest.

• An example: Tracking lead time (I read an

article about it and believe would provide us

precious information regarding process

improvement)

Taking notes

• Please use one post it per note

• Consider using different post it colors for

notes:

– Team inward (things within our team boundaries)

– Team outward (things beyond our team

boundaries)

Activities to follow

• data grouping

• selecting notes to talk about

• targeted conversation based on data

• creating action itens

Up, Down, Ideas and Awards

The quadrants

• Thumbs up – things you like

• Thumbs down – things you dislike

• Award– appreciations/thank-yous

• Light bulbs – ideas/new things to try

Activities to follow

• selecting notes to talk about

• targeted conversation based on data

• creating action itens

Timeline activity

An activity for data gathering for

given period.

Building the Timeline

• Please draw a timeline on a large area (e.g.

whiteboard)

Timeline

32

timeline

Building the Timeline

• Decide the timeline start and end (e.g. 05 Jan–

Inception Start; 12 Dec – 10 days after Prod)

• Add a few noticeable events (e.g. New team

members arrival, release 1, release 2)

Timeline

34

timeline

TimelineStart Event A Event CEvent B

TimelineEnd

Building the Timeline

• Split the timeline into a areas (2 to 4

recommended), and decide upon the areas

(e.g. People, process, technology, other)

People

Process

Tool/ tech

Other

36

timeline

TimelineStart Event A Event CEvent B

TimelineEnd

Building the Timeline

• Decide upon post it colors for the notes (e.g.

Green for well, pink for not so well)

• Use another color for action items (e.g. Yellow

for action items)

Timeline activity instrctions

• Use one post it for each note

• Follow the color code

• Place the note on the area according to the

timelime (e.g. A green post it “New load

balance server” is added on the Technology

area around Release2 timeline)

• Timebox the activity (10 minutes

recommended)

Activities to follow

• data grouping

• selecting notes to talk about

• targeted reasoning based on data

Open the box

A data gathering activity which foster

innovation and challenges the current

activities performed by the team.Retrospective activities

Paulo Caroli

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” ― Albert Einstein

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” ― Andy Warhol

Inside this box are all activities

performed by the team

Please open the box…

Which activities should

be removed from it?

Which activities should be added?

What to recycle?

Taking notes

• Please use one post it per note

• Use the different post it colors for notes

related to:

– process

– tools and technology

– Other

• Timing: 10 minutes or less

Next step:

validating changes

• Executing ideas is often tougher than

generating them.

• How should we test ideas quickly and cheaply,

so that we can afford to experiment?

• Please go back to your notes and add new

post –its (please use a new color) describing

how to test the idea execution.

Activities to follow

• data grouping

• voting

• selecting notes to talk about

• targeted conversation based on data

• creating action itens

9/18/2012

Smiley Calendar Average

52

Smiley Calendar Average

Please go back on time and imagine

your Smiley Calendar for each day

since last Retrospective...

Smiley Calendar Average

0

2

4

I don’t remember smiling at all

Somewhere in between…

I was always Smiling!

1

3

Smiley Calendar Average

Please add a mark next to the smiley

average line

Activities to follow

• Smiley faces data gathering

• Guided conversation on Smiley faces

9/18/2012

Smiley Calendar data gathering

Activities before

• Ice breaker

• Group participation

• Context setting

• Prime directive

• Smiley Calendar Average (mandatory)

59

Smiley Calendar Average

Now, let’s dig into our mood

variation and the reasons for it

Smiley Calendar data gathering

Even though you might not

remember every single day, please

tell us the happenings that got you

either very ☺ or very �

Smiley Calendar Data Gathering

timeline

TimelineEnds

TimelineStart

Activities to follow

• data grouping

• selecting notes to talk about

• targeted reasoning based on data

• looking for action items

9/18/2012

Guided conversations

on smiley faces

Activities before

• Ice breaker

• Group participation

• Context setting

• Prime directive

• Smiley Calendar Average (mandatory)

Smiley Calendar Average

0

2

4

I don’t remember smiling at all

Somewhere in between…

I was always Smiling!

1

3

Guided conversation

Now, let’s think about the future...

Guided conversation

� What are the things that will keep you

☺?

�What will you do different in order to

avoid a � face?

Activity instructions

• Open conversation

• Timebox the activity (10 minutes

recommended)

Activities to follow

• sharing the notes

• looking for action items

Hot air balloon

A data gathering activity which focus on

things impacting the team ability to go

fasterRetrospective activities

Paulo Caroli

Activities before

• Ice breaker

• Group participation

• Context setting

The Balloon

• The balloon represents the team cruising

along the project.

• Let’s split the board into 3 areas

Fuel

Sandbag

Bad weather

Fuel

• What is the fuel for our balloon?

• The things that will help our balloon goes

higher and faster

Sandbag and ropes

• What is slowing down our balloon?

• The things that keep us from going faster

Bad weather

• What would be the bad weather ahead?

• The things that would put our journey at risk

Fuel

Sandbag

Bad weather

Taking notes

• Please use one post it per note

• Use the different post it colors for notes

related to:

– people

– process

– tools and technology

– other

Activities to follow

• data grouping

• selecting notes to talk about

• targeted conversation based on data

• creating action itens

Plan of Action

82

• Long-term goal: Have test automation on

acceptance-test level

• Now-Action: Pete will automate one test

using Fit

83

9/18/2012

Speed Car - Abyss

retrospective exercise

85

Six Thinking Hat

Edward de Bono

Six Thinking Hats is a thinking tool

for group discussion, it provides a

means for groups to think

together more effectively, and a

means to plan thinking processes

in a detailed and cohesive way.

Red hat – Feelings & Emotions

• Focuses on feelings, hunches, gut instinct, and

intuition

White hat – Facts & Information

• Focus on data, facts, information know of

needed

Black hat – Critical Judgment

• Focuses on difficulties, potential problems.

Why something may not work.

Green hat – Alternatives and learning

• Focuses on creativity, possibilities,

alternatives, solutions, new ideas.

The 4 quadrants

(planning vs success)

activity

for lessons learned

92

Planned

and successful

Unintended,

but

successful

Planned

but

failed

failed

and

not planned

93

ROI

Agile Retrospective Activities

Questions?

Thank you!

Feedback please: @paulocaroli

agileretroactivities.blogspot.com

Paulo Caroli Agile Coach

pcaroli@thoughtworks.comTwitter: @paulocaroli