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?