At a recent users group meeting, I heard about a retrospective activity someone created. It wasn't an activity I would use as described (which is why I'm not more specific about who and where), but I thought it had possibilities. It's based on the idea of asking team members to write thoughts on index cards anonymously.
I've seen a number of variations on this theme. One I've led many times at the start of a retrospective I call "Sense of the Room" (included below).
This new activity lends itself to the Gathering Data focus of a retrospective. For want of a better...
A colleague who works outside the software industry asked me whether retrospectives would be good for his team and whether other Agile practices will work for them too.
Holding regular and frequent retrospectives (as well as a retrospective at the project's end) will help any project team reach its full potential. Even if your project doesn't follow an iterative life cycle, bring the team together for a retrospective at the project milestones (or monthly). Take a short "time out" for team members to recognize and consolidate what they've learned so far, and include those lessons learned in the next increment...
Please allow me a bit of a gloat.
Esther Derby and I wrote a book about retrospectives for projects using Agile methods, Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great! (published by Pragmatic Bookshelf) I actually held a copy in my hands for the first time just last night. The printer shipped them on Thursday. Baby books just born. Practically still wet.
The book offers information that lots of people will find useful, and that's good. But, the most exciting thing about it--it's my first book! I'm feeling all those first time author feelings, like a proud parent.
This coming week, I'm attending the Agile...
Jason Yip wrote a blog that made me think. I think we’d call this Courage. Or, on an XP team, following our values.