Long Format Retrospective
Retrospective Set-Up
Section titled “Retrospective Set-Up”The idea of the retrospective is to give all involved parties a way to input what went right and what went wrong. To get people into the right perspective we collect data on five key components of the project:
- Deployment process
- Testing practices
- Communication
- Clarity of scope
- Satisfaction of delivered product
We ask attendees to write a score from 1 through 5 on a post-it, then draw out the average as shown below:
Use a whiteboard or empty wall at their office with 5 circles and have people stick their post-it note in each one. Write out the average on the whiteboard and walk through a conversation on how we did.
What Went Well / What Could Have Been Better
Section titled “What Went Well / What Could Have Been Better”Follow up by creating two columns on a whiteboard or screen: “What went well?” and “What could have been better?” Have each person write one unique answer per post-it.
Ask people to write these out ahead of time and come prepared to stick them up anonymously. Alternatively, send an anonymous Google Form to everyone beforehand and transcribe the responses onto post-its that morning to save time.
- Go over everyone’s notes on what went well
- Go over everyone’s notes on what can be improved
Conclusion
Section titled “Conclusion”The takeaway should be a set of agreed-upon action items — a clear list of things to do differently going into the next engagement, memorialised in a summary Confluence document.
Key questions to answer:
- What were the customer’s overall thoughts on the project? Was it a success? Why or why not?
- What went well that we should carry into other projects?
- What were missteps that we should avoid in other projects?
Sample Agenda
Section titled “Sample Agenda”Send over an agenda with each activity and its expected duration before the meeting:
| Activity | Duration |
|---|---|
| Retrospective introduction | 5 min |
| Write out 5 sections on the whiteboard and place post-it notes | 10 min |
| Discuss the scores | 15 min |
| Place post-it notes in “went well” / “could be better” columns | 10 min |
| Discuss what could be better | 15 min |
| Discuss what went well | 15 min |
| Open discussion — questions, suggestions for improving this process | 5 min |
| Select the most important items to solve as a team | 15 min |
| Conclusion / action items | 5 min |