Article
Scrum Events – Sprint Retrospectives
What is a Sprint Retrospective?
A Sprint Retrospective is a regularly scheduled event where members of a Scrum Team reflect on their way of working, as part of the inspect and adapt process, in a spirit of continuous improvement. Some Agile practitioners consider the Sprint Retrospective to be the most important of the five Scrum events, and especially in the hands of an experienced facilitator, it can make a significant difference for many teams.
What’s the Benefit of a Sprint Retrospective?
Sprint Retrospectives ensure the team has time to reflect, celebrate and improve. Quality Retrospectives enhance team engagement, empower the team to solve process-related issues, and improve overall performance.
When?
At the end of every Sprint, and thus before Sprint Planning. The duration of a Sprint Retrospective can vary, with 30 minutes typically being the minimum amount of time. Sprint duration can also be in important consideration in the length of a Sprint Retrospective, where the longer the Sprint is, the longer the Sprint Retrospective tends to be, since there is more team history to talk about.
Who attends a Sprint Retrospective?
- Scrum Master (Facilitator)
- Developers
- Product Owner
Note: It is customary for the only attendees to be members of the Scrum Team (as described above). If other people are present, it can impact the nature of the conversation that the team has, and can act as a barrier to psychological safety.
Inputs
- Metrics and outcomes of the current Sprint
- The action items from the previous Sprint Retrospective
- Being open to change
Outputs
- One or more action items the team agrees may improve performance, often in the form of S.M.A.R.T. Goals.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-based
- Some teams enter action items items in the Sprint Backlog, or in an Improvement Backlog, so that the action items remain visible.
Preparing for Success
Related Subjects
Acknowledgments
Authored by Steve Moubray
Edited by Philip Rogers
Photo by Derek Lee on Unsplash
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