The SBOK® Guide is now available for download in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Deutsch, French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese & Arabic!
Agile Scrum Sprint Retrospective Best Practices
Posted by SCRUMstudy® on October 10, 2023
Categories: Scrum Scrum Guide Scrum Master Scrum Team Sprint
Agile Scrum Sprint Retrospectives are pivotal for continuous improvement within a Scrum team. Best practices, as outlined by SCRUMstudy, include fostering a safe and open environment where team members feel comfortable sharing honest feedback. Focus on actionable insights by identifying specific improvements rather than broad generalizations. Encourage participation from all team members to ensure diverse perspectives. Utilize various retrospective formats to keep the meetings engaging and fresh. Document and follow up on action items to ensure accountability and track progress over time. By adhering to these practices, Scrum teams can enhance their processes, collaboration, and overall effectiveness.
The Retrospect Sprint Meeting is an important element of the ‘inspect-adapt’ Scrum framework and it is the final step in a Sprint. All Scrum Team members attend the meeting, which is facilitated or moderated by the Scrum Master. It is recommended, but not required for the Product Owner to attend. One team member acts as the scribe and documents discussions and items for future action. It is essential to hold this meeting in an open and relaxed environment to encourage full participation by all team members. Discussions in the Retrospect Sprint Meeting encompass both what went wrong and what went right. The primary objectives of the meeting are to identify three specific things:
1) Things the team needs to keep doing: best practices
2) Things the team needs to begin doing: process improvements
3) Things the team needs to stop doing: process problems and bottlenecks
These areas are discussed and a list of Agreed Actionable Improvements is created.
Other tools used in the Process of Retrospect Sprint are:
1. ESVP
2. Speed Boat
3. Metrics and Measuring Techniques
4. Scrum Guidance Body Expertise
The outputs of the Retrospect Sprint are:
1. Agreed Actionable Improvements
2. Assigned Action Items and Due Dates
3. Proposed Non-Functional Items for Prioritized Product Backlog
4. Retrospect Sprint Log(s)
5. Scrum Team Lessons Learned
6. Updated Scrum Guidance Body Recommendations