Agile Retrospective

An Agile retrospective is a meeting held at the end of a work cycle, typically a sprint, where team members reflect on what went well, what didn't, and how to improve in the future. This process fosters continuous improvement and helps teams adapt their practices for better performance. See the Retrospective prime directive to help frame the purpose of the event.

In Scrum teams, the Scrum Master acts as facilitator. In other teams, the group self-nominates a facilitator. They gather input, do Affinity mapping, foster a group discussion of major topics, and help the group converge on a few action items to try as improvements.

Formats

The seminal reference book on the subject is Agile Retrospectives by [redacted] and [redacted]. See also retrospectivewiki.org.

Some popular formats:

• Start, Stop, Continue
  • I use a variant called the Starfish retrospective for my personal retrospectives.
• Glad, Sad, Mad
  • Emoji-themed.
• Sailboat
  • Uses a wind and anchor analogy for what's propelling the team and keeping them in place.
• Liked, Learned, Lacked, Loathed (4 L's)
  • I use the variant of Loathed for "Longed for", because it's similar to Lacked.
• The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (what needs improvement)