Download Project Retrospectives

The Power of Retrospection
Linda Rising
Picasso
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Rembrandt
Malczewski +
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The Productive
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Introduction to
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Neal Ford
Hubert Plociniczak
Luca Milanesio
Sang Shin
Project Retrospectives
Linda Rising
www.lindarising.org
[email protected]
At regular intervals, the team
reflects on how
to become more effective, then
tunes and adjusts
its behavior accordingly.
agilemanifesto.org/principles.html
Is that a postmortem?
Project Retrospectives
A retrospective is an
opportunity for
the participants to
learn how to
improve. The
focus is on
learning—not
fault-finding.
Norm Kerth
Agile Retrospectives
How to mine the
experience of
your software
development
team continually
throughout the
life of the project.
Reflect and find a better way
Here is Edward Bear,
coming downstairs now,
bump, bump, bump, bump,
on the back of his head,
behind Christopher Robin.
It is, as far as he knows, the
only way of coming
downstairs, but sometimes
he feels that there is another
way, if only he could stop
bumping for a moment
and think of it.
A. A. Milne
Winnie the Pooh
Why a retrospective?
To learn from the past
We want to believe that learning from
experience is automatic, but it requires
profound skills.
Experience provides data, not knowledge.
Why a retrospective?
To plan the future
People want to improve themselves but
usually they don’t know what to
work on.
When they get good feedback on
specific goals, that releases the
natural internal inclination to
improve.
James Fallows
Why a retrospective?
To reach closure
Research shows that when organizations
go through changes, people have feelings
and thoughts but no place to express
them in the normal course of business.
Thus, their experience is carried
forward as a heaviness that slows them
down and keeps them from moving into
the new setting with enthusiasm.
Retrospective Examples
Military: After Action Reviews, Navy Lessons
Learned, Coast Guard Uniform Lessons
Learned
“Learning in the Thick of It,” M. Darling, Charles
Parry, and Joseph Moore,, July-August 2005.
Harvard Business Review
Post-Fire Critiques
chiefmontagna.com/Articles/post%20fire%20critique.htm
The CEO & The Monk – corporate funeral
What a retrospective isn’t
No naming, no blaming. But praise is
always welcome!
Kerth’s Prime Directive:
Regardless of what we discover, we must
understand and truly believe that everyone did
the best job he/she could, given what was known
at the time, his/her skills and abilities, the
resources available, and the situation at hand.
Why take so much time?
Memories are short and selective – Challenger
experiment
We tend to focus on recent events, especially if
they are painful
Technical people see technical problems, while
many (or most) of the problems we face are
people problems.
External facilitation is required
Appropriate times for a retrospective


At the end of project
While the project is still running
o
o
o
At milestones
Heartbeat
Custom – response to a “surprise”
What are the driving
questions?




What worked well that we don’t want to
forget?
What should we do differently?
What did we learn?
What still puzzles us?
Agile vs. End of Project



On an agile project, each iteration should
involve a few small experiments
The retrospective questions should focus on
the experiments, e.g. “What worked well about
moving the time of our stand-up?”
Agile retrospectives are about getting ready
for the next iteration, not about solving all the
problems the team has. You may not be able to
solve a given problem, but you can always set
up a small experiment.
Who should attend?
 Represent
many viewpoints:
 Development
 Marketing
 Customer
Support
 QA
 Managers
 May
split into specialist groups
e.g. Testers, Developers, to tackle
special topics
What happens
During the meeting



Readying
Look at the past
Prepare for the future
Ground Rules
Examples:
Try not to interrupt (use a talking stick)
Speak from your own perspective and
not speak for anyone else
No jokes at the expense of anyone in the
room
Create Safety
Create an atmosphere in which team
members feel comfortable talking openly
and honestly
 Everything
is optional
 Secret ballot
4 = “No problem”
 1 = “No way”

 Establish
ground rules
Example Exercises




•Readying
•Look at the past
•Prepare for the future
Artifacts Contest
Offer Appreciations
Time Line – agile teams do this in “real-time”
Mine for Gold
What happens
During the meeting
Time Line Exercise
•Readying
•Look at the past
•Prepare for the future
What happens
During the meeting
Time Line Exercise
•Readying
•Look at the past
•Prepare for the future
What happens
During the meeting




What worked well?
What to do differently?
What did we learn?
What still puzzles us?
•Readying
•Look at the past
•Prepare for the future
What happens
During the meeting



•Readying
•Look at the past
•Prepare for the future
Determine actions to take for the next iteration
or release or project
Identify the next “experiment”
For agile projects, each iteration should identify
a few small changes and ask “the driving
questions” about those changes at the next
retrospective
How is knowledge shared?






Web postings.
Team meetings, staff meetings, tech forums.
Training courses.
Interaction during checkups and
retrospectives.
Process feedback and knowledge sharing
operates continuously.
Minstrels and story-tellers!
How to “sell” retrospectives
The purpose of a retrospective is learning



To avoid recurring mistakes
To identify and share successful practices
To prepare for the next iteration and future
projects
Everyone says they want to learn, but few take the
time to do so.
Fearless Change: patterns for introducing new ideas,
Mary Lynn Manns & Linda Rising, AddisonWesley, 2005.
Facilitation resources
International Association of Facilitators - certification program
http://www.iaf-world.org/
ASTD - American Society for Training and Development - local chapters
http://www.astd.org/index_NS6.html
ISPI - International Society for Performance Improvement - certification,
local chapters http://www.ispi.org/
NASAGA - North American Simulation and Gaming Association
http://www.nasaga.org/
Workshops by Thiagi - Freebies http://thiagi.com/
Roger Schwartz, The Skilled Facilitator
Sam Kaner et al, Facilitators Guide to Participatory Decision Making
Ingrid Bens, Facilitate with Ease! Josey-Bass Inc., 2000.
R. Brian Stanfield, ed., The Art of Focused Conversation. ICA Canada,1977.
R. Brian Stanfield, ed., The Workshop Book. ICA Canada, 2002.
Training and development Yahoo group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/trdev/
Jean Tabaka, Collaboration Explained, Addison-Wesley, 2006
Next Steps




Buy and read Norm Kerth’s book: Project
Retrospectives, Dorset House, 2001
Buy and read Esther Derby and Diana
Larsen's book: Agile Retrospectives, The
Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2006
Check out Linda’s web site – click on Articles,
then Retrospectives
Sign up for the Yahoo group: retrospectives
Retrospectives
a closing thought
from Norm Kerth (and Edward Bear)
… we bump our heads in
project after project, day
after day. If we would
only take a moment to
stop and think of
alternative ways to
proceed, I’m sure we
could find better ways to
do our work.
Norm Kerth
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