Even though we brushed the subject of collaboration already, there is still an important form of meeting that deserves particular attention: the retrospective.
A retrospective is a meeting reserved to team members, where you discuss the project status, adapt planning according to client feedback, and ultimately improve your process and workflow to better respond to change. It is a moment to look back at what has happened, and how can it all be improved from this meeting onwards. The Agile litterature mentions several types of retrospectives:
- iteration restrospective: takes place after gathering feedback from the client during the iteration review. For graphility, as product owner and strong proponent of as little formal meetings as possible, I prefer to combine this one with the next morning meeting.
- release retrospective: depending on the size and complexity of your project, formal releases may not happen every iteration. In this context, a release retrospective is a space to discuss what has been done so far and how will the team deal with the next steps.
- project retrospective: this is, in my opinion, the most important form of retrospective — more on this below.
Of particular interest is the project retrospective. Scheduled soon after the end of the project, it is a ceremony where honesty and open communication should prevail. Consider that usually, the key in problem resolution is not so much whatever issue is at hand, rather than asserting the existence of said issue and envision possible solutions.
During the project retrospective, the team discusses the project as a whole, focusing on the acknowledged inefficiencies as much as on the stimulating achievements. As a debate facilitator, it is psychologically important to react not only to what has gone wrong, but also to what has gone well. Furthermore, the conclusion should always be encouraging and positive.
That said, the main goals of the retrospective, other than facilitating team-building, is to come up with an actionable plan of improvement. Without a plan for the future, the critical discussion has no sense. Make sure your team understands this, and schedule time in the following weeks to follow-up on the course of action.
To wrap up, a good retrospective should improve communication and cohesion within the team, as each member has a valuable opportunity to speak up, but perhaps more importantly, to listen to others and gain a fresh perspective on the past situations.
Further reading:
- Conducting a temperature reading, by Naomi Karten
- Retrospectives, by Norman L. Kerth
- Agile retrospectives, making good teams great, by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen