Walk into the Light. Retrospectives. Part 3 of 3.

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www.implementingscrum.com -- Cartoon -- September 17, 2007

Welcome back to another week at www.implementingscrum.com.

This week Tony and I complete the last of a three part series on Retrospectives. Part one is here and part two is there (smile).

This is one of our first comic strips that uses no words. Sometimes words are not required.Of course, it is easy and open for interpretation. So this post will explain where I am headed with this one.The goal of this blog entry is to help you understand what a retrospective can actually look like — and what the different outcomes can be.The good thing is it will be easy to translate.How it gets interpreted — that is another story.

First, let me ask you a question — what do you see when you look at this cartoon strip?

Really think about it.

There is no right or wrong answer. Your objective and subjective opinion matters.

Now, lets take a moment to step back and see what the team has come up with. OK, so the team right now is you, and use me as the facilitator.

Make a list of what you think these are. Go ahead. Nobody is watching you, its OK.

If you have done the exercise above, take a moment and step back (take some time) to reflect on the different pictures that have been developed from your list.

Take some time and think about them.

Close your eyes — do not fall asleep — and visualize this. Open them when you are done so you can continue reading this blog entry!

Hmmm.

The list may be pretty long.

Maybe take the top two or three things on the list you created.

Can you use them to make a difference on what you do daily with Scrum Teams?

What are you personally going to do with this information now?

Thank you for taking the time to do this, as I know your time is valuable.

Now.

Guess what we just did?

We used a framework from the book, “Agile Retrospectives, Making Good Teams Great,” by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen. Other great books on various agile topics can be found here.

The framework has five things — and go back up (now that you have the list) — to help you get the most from your retrospectives.

Set the Stage
Gather Data
Generate Insights
Decide What to Do
Close the Retrospective.

Wow.

Seems easy, right?It looks easy from the outside when people facilitate retrospectives this way.And sometimes a Scrum Team will come out the day-to-day doldrums and have a new clarity and outlook on what they are doing as a team.Cool.

Gotta run!.Please send comments, questions, criticisms, ideas, or whatever here.

You can also enter The Scrum Community to discuss this entry and other Scrum topics. Thank you!

Originally Published:
September 17, 2007