Sprint Retro Guidelines

Continuing on from sharing some perspectives on sprint retros (see my earlier post), here are some simple guidelines to get you started on running better sessions with your team:

Celebrate what’s great

Try to determine what is repeatable and sustainable.

Identify what to improve

Consider what (not who) is detracting.

Who

• Only the actual team members should be included in a sprint retro:
  • The tech lead(s)/developers, designers, etc.
  • The product owner and project manager/scrum master
  • If there are client people who are actively working on the project (contributing to the sprint goal and the increment/work product), they can and should be included as well.

How

• Come prepared with talking points
• Someone from this group (a peer) should be able to facilitate
  • prompt people
  • record +s and –s
  • encourage participation (not pass judgment or validate/invalidate the contributions)
• Try and propose a solution when identifying a problem
• Review past retro points and gauge progress

Remember…

Team performance that continuously improves is the result of a team feeling accountable to each other!