Comments on: Retrospectives: Some thoughts http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/2010/06/10/retrospectives-some-thoughts/ Thoughts on Software Development Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:17:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Writing off a badly executed practice at Mark Needham http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/2010/06/10/retrospectives-some-thoughts/comment-page-1/#comment-41733 Writing off a badly executed practice at Mark Needham Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:55:28 +0000 http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/?p=2472#comment-41733 [...] example I wrote a post about a month ago outlining some of the problems that we'd been having with retrospec... on some of the projects that I've been working on and at one stage towards the beginning of the [...] [...] example I wrote a post about a month ago outlining some of the problems that we'd been having with retrospec… on some of the projects that I've been working on and at one stage towards the beginning of the [...]

]]> By: Mark Needham http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/2010/06/10/retrospectives-some-thoughts/comment-page-1/#comment-38992 Mark Needham Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:53:44 +0000 http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/?p=2472#comment-38992 @Andre - ah cool I haven't read the Prag book on Retrospectives, I think that's gotta be one for me to look at now! Have you read the Kerth one by the way? Heard that one's meant to be good although I haven't read it either. I like the ideas for 5 why's/root cause analysis - that sounds like a cool way to make a retro a bit less boring. Somehow never thought of that - thanks for the tips! @Andre – ah cool I haven’t read the Prag book on Retrospectives, I think that’s gotta be one for me to look at now!

Have you read the Kerth one by the way? Heard that one’s meant to be good although I haven’t read it either.

I like the ideas for 5 why’s/root cause analysis – that sounds like a cool way to make a retro a bit less boring.

Somehow never thought of that – thanks for the tips!

]]> By: André Faria Gomes http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/2010/06/10/retrospectives-some-thoughts/comment-page-1/#comment-38991 André Faria Gomes Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:49:48 +0000 http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/?p=2472#comment-38991 Really Nice ,Needham! Here at Bluesoft in Brazil we have weekly retrospectives at the very end of each sprint, and we also have a space in our kanban for things do improve (or not so nice events), things that went well, and ideas. We use postits for each item. We lived a moment in the past like you described when the team were demotivated to have retrospectives meetings because the subjects were always the same, but then after reading the Diana's Book from the pragmatic programmers, we started to use some techniques that really helped us out. Things like: - Taking the bugs and make a root cause analysis. - Taking the last potencial problems and apply the 5 whys (lean). - The 5 hats of thinking technique - The brainstorming and filtering from the Art of Agile Book Really Nice ,Needham! Here at Bluesoft in Brazil we have weekly retrospectives at the very end of each sprint, and we also have a space in our kanban for things do improve (or not so nice events), things that went well, and ideas. We use postits for each item.

We lived a moment in the past like you described when the team were demotivated to have retrospectives meetings because the subjects were always the same, but then after reading the Diana’s Book from the pragmatic programmers, we started to use some techniques that really helped us out.

Things like:
- Taking the bugs and make a root cause analysis.
- Taking the last potencial problems and apply the 5 whys (lean).
- The 5 hats of thinking technique
- The brainstorming and filtering from the Art of Agile Book

]]> By: Tweets that mention Retrospectives: Some thoughts at Mark Needham -- Topsy.com http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/2010/06/10/retrospectives-some-thoughts/comment-page-1/#comment-38988 Tweets that mention Retrospectives: Some thoughts at Mark Needham -- Topsy.com Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:36:18 +0000 http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/?p=2472#comment-38988 [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Arnon Rotem-Gal-Oz, Bruce Onder. Bruce Onder said: Mark Needham: Retrospectives: Some thoughts http://ff.im/-lNP6V [...] [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Arnon Rotem-Gal-Oz, Bruce Onder. Bruce Onder said: Mark Needham: Retrospectives: Some thoughts http://ff.im/-lNP6V [...]

]]> By: Jussi Mononen http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/2010/06/10/retrospectives-some-thoughts/comment-page-1/#comment-38980 Jussi Mononen Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:00:10 +0000 http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/?p=2472#comment-38980 Hi, IMO retros should never be skipped either. It is very easy to feel that they do not bring any value but then I would start wondering whether the retrospectives are facilitated properly. Good ideas can be found in the Agile Retrospectives book (http://pragprog.com/titles/dlret/agile-retrospectives) or with the help of Dr. Google. Bring in a facilitator from outside, someone outside the team. Retrospectives are the most important part of Scrum, it is the only place where you can inspect and adapt. Skip it, and you'll be doomed to stagnation (or at least you will have hard time of improving the ways you work) :-) Hi,

IMO retros should never be skipped either. It is very easy to feel that they do not bring any value but then I would start wondering whether the retrospectives are facilitated properly. Good ideas can be found in the Agile Retrospectives book (http://pragprog.com/titles/dlret/agile-retrospectives) or with the help of Dr. Google.

Bring in a facilitator from outside, someone outside the team. Retrospectives are the most important part of Scrum, it is the only place where you can inspect and adapt. Skip it, and you’ll be doomed to stagnation (or at least you will have hard time of improving the ways you work) :-)

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