Posted by Anthony Boobier on 24 November 2009 | 0 Comments
Retrospectives are a vital part of a successful agile development process. They provide the opportunity for the team to pause on a regular basis to assess progress and process, adjust and make improvements, rather than waiting until the end of a project to gather up lessons learnt.
This presentation I gave at a recent meeting of the Wellington chapter of the Agile Professionals Network explains why the Retrospective is a key tool in anyone’s iterative development toolkit. It gives an overview of Agile Iteration Retrospectives, their importance and how to structure them.
Key points:
Agile methods are focussed on development of the product. The Inspect and Adapt cycle of reviewing and demonstrating the deliverables omits the essential component of the process - the team itself. The Retrospective resolves this.
How to structure the Retrospective
- Setting the stage
- Gathering data
- Generate insights
- Decide what to do
Should the customer attend the Retrospective? That depends. It depends on the relationship with the customer, the theme of the Retrospective, and the individuals involved. I have run my most successful and most challenging Retrospectives with the customer present. You need to consider how open and safe an environment you will be creating by having them present.
View the full presentation on Slideshare.
Tags:
agile,
application development,
project management,
teams
