Friday, 1 October 2021

6 Strategies to boost your Sprint Retrospective

Scrum is constantly looking for ways to improve. It isn't afraid of change; it welcomes it. With that in mind, here are some suggestions to help you improve your sprint retrospective.



1.       Start with an Icebreaker: You want to make sure that your teams are comfortable with one another before you send them out on the road. While they may have collaborated, they may have been assigned to different tasks or worked remotely. As a result, start the brainstorming process by informing everyone ahead of time and providing some simple icebreakers to get them thinking. They could be one-word responses to simple questions or an emotional indicator of how they felt during the previous sprint.

2.       Have the Previous Sprint Goals and Improvements on Display: Put them up where everyone can see them get people talking about how these improvements went and what goals were and weren't met. You can analyse the results later, but getting people to talk about the process first will give you a better picture of where it works and where it doesn't.

3.       Don’t Fall into Routine: This is easier said than done, because if something worked before, it's likely to work again. Routine, on the other hand, can be the kiss of death. People become disengaged, and productivity suffers as a result. Ask the team what they think they should start, stop, and continue doing in a start-and-stop meeting. Set the meeting up like an awards show, with categories such as best storey, most annoying storey, and so on. There are numerous innovative approaches to meetings that you can investigate and implement.

4.       Do a Retrospective of the Retrospective: Isn't it worth putting the process under the microscope? This will not only result in a more engaged and less routine sprint retrospective, but it will also provide insight into what is and is not working in the process. It's not just the sprint that could use some work.

5.       Change the Facilitator: Although it is customary for the scrum master to facilitate sprint retrospectives, this does not imply that it is required. The scrum master will be present to keep things in check, but having others take the reins can really help shake things up and provide new perspectives.

6.       Start with Why: Questioning the entire process is another way to get the blood flowing. Why is it necessary to hold a sprint retrospective in the first place? You might get a few people who fall for the bait and agree, but more likely you'll find people stepping on each other to explain why the process is so important. There are few better ways to start the retrospective than with genuine participation.

Need more insights on Sprint Retrospective? Enrol in a PfMP Certification and Pfmp course session today!

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