Nothing Ever Gets Better Around Here

 

1. Smells

• Retrospective doesn't happen
• No actionable items generated from Retrospective
• Actions aren't taken
• Non team members attend the meeting
• No one wants to talk
• The same issues come up time after time

 

2. Discussion

 

If we're not continously improving we're not really Agile. So what happened?

 

 

3. Causes

• Action Items if they exist, don't have owners.
• Action Items get forgotten as soon as the Retrospective is over

 

4. Consequences

• Team fails to improve

 

5. Prevention

 

6. Example Remedies

• After discussing issues - ask team members to suggest concrete actions (see Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great for some great ideas).

• Ensure that action items are small and achievable.
• Ask a for one volunteer to own each action item.
• Action items can't be assigned to people not present at the meeting.
• Discuss action items as part of the daily standup - at least a few times during the iteration.
• Post action items in a highly visible location

 

7. Case Studies

 

Credit: this is based on material from "10 ways to screw up with Scrum and XP" by Henrik Kniberg. Personal Experience: Mark Levison

 

 Create your own business wiki!HelpPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS