#Project retrospective how to#

Your project or sprint is nearing its completion and you're looking forward to your first retrospective. Another very good category of improvement actions is the identification and launch of a new project/sprint/user story that ultimately results in an improved product. Ask 'How will this improvement action be introduced to other projects?' The best improvement actions will be updates to project or organization assets (e.g., training materials, process descriptions, job aids, job descriptions) because these have a better chance of becoming embedded into the core operation of the entire organization.

You can visually represent this evaluation by drawing this grid on a white board and using sticky notes to place each proposed improvement to reflect its score:

Evaluate the viability (Can this action really be accomplished?) and impact (If we complete this action, will it really improve our project performance? Will it improve the performance of any other project teams?) of each proposed improvement.

Try these two tests, applied to each proposed improvement action: Naturally, you'll want to have SMART definitions for your actions. A crucial step in the retrospective is selecting the improvement actions that the team will pursue, and key desired outcomes are to have a sustained and widespread use of retrospective results.

Select improvement actions that will have real impact.

Choose an effective way to represent the data for easy consumption and use during the retrospective. Give ample consideration to the data that are most meaningful to the project team in accurately portraying project performance, from the perspectives of the team members, your customer, other stakeholders and management.

An early step of the retrospective is coming to a common, shared view of the project performance - project data is one of your most important inputs for this activity. Your checklist should probably include these items: provide adequate advance notice of the meeting, create and publish an agenda with suggested preparation tips, secure a good meeting location and room layout, provide an ample supply of materials needed for the activities (white boards, sticky notes, markers), and promote a team norm that each participant will prompt in their arrival. Handle these well and you've started the retrospective on a positive note. The basic elements of a meeting can make or break your team gathering. Here are a few reminders that can make your retrospective exceptionally effective: Three Important Reminders for a Perfect Retrospective The goal of a retrospective is to improve team performance on the project. It's not a complaint or blaming session either.

#Project retrospective how to#

Nor is a retrospective merely completing aВ questionnaire so some project manager can figure out how to run the next project - that would be a typical lessons learned activity. It's not a session to create an explanation for management about a project failure - that would be a typical project post mortem. Team members come together, each with their own perspective and insights, to understand one another's view of the project and identify improvement actions. The retrospective is a constructive glance at the recent past to enable a better future. 'How can we work together to improve now, so our next project is demonstrably better?'

Think of the retrospective activities as being centered around this question: This reflection of the team's activity and performance creates an opportunity to have a shared, common view of the just-completed project along with a shared view of some changes that can benefit subsequent projects. The most important practice used by Scrum teams to improve is the retrospective. Teams who are content with their performance miss out entirely on this benefit, while those who want to improve are only a few days away from the next opportunity to improve. By having short cycles that are frequently executed, the team can develop a fundamental skill and competency that comes from repetition, learning, and adaptation. Scrum teams have an advantage that doesn't exist on long term, traditionally managed projects: the benefit of rapid cycle execution.

Frequent Cycle Execution Opens Opportunities for Improvement