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Sprint Retrospective + FREE Cheat Sheet

Episode 137 - 15 May 2019

Dummy body

We’re dissecting Scrum to take a look at piece by pieceToday it’s the turn of the RETRO aka The Sprint Retrospective.

The Sprint Retrospective is the last of Scrums FIVE Events (what use to be called ceremonies)

And If Sprint Planning marks the beginning of the Sprint, then the Sprint Retrospective marks its end.

It is - as the Sprint Guide reminds us - an opportunity for the Sprint to… INSPECT itself.

If you’ve seen the episode on the Sprint Review, you’ll know that we talked about the 3 pillars on which Scrum is built. Namely

Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation.

In the Sprint Review… we inspect and adapt the INCREMENT. -essentially the PRODUCT

In the Sprint Retrospective… we inspect and adapt,well, everything else!!!

One of cool the things about Scrum is that every two weeks, the clock restarts and we get to play another game.

This means we have the OPPORTUNITY to get better at playing the game.

And Scrum doesn’t leave this to chance.

The Scrum guide is very specific about the PURPOSE of the retro. THREE things:

Inspect how the last Sprint went with regards to people, relationships, process, and tools; Identify and order the major items that went well and potential improvements; and, Create a plan for implementing improvements to the way the Scrum Team does its work.

Create a plan. This is the ADAPT part of inspect and adapt. It’s all too easy to … talk… but we need… action.

Think I better check in with the Scrum Guide...

By the end of the Sprint Retrospective, the Scrum Team should have identified improvements that it will implement in the next Sprint.

The next Sprint? So soon? Although improvements may be implemented at any time, the Sprint Retrospective provides a formal opportunity to focus on inspection and adaptation.