Comments on: Best and worst retrospective experiences http://www.stevenlist.com/blog/2009/03/31/best-and-worst-retrospectives/ Thoughts on Agile software development, facilitation, communication, and relationships in the personal and professional worlds, from Steven "Doc" List Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:20:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Cory Foy http://www.stevenlist.com/blog/2009/03/31/best-and-worst-retrospectives/comment-page-1/#comment-400 Cory Foy Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:05:43 +0000 http://www.stevenlist.com/blog/?p=378#comment-400 One of the best ones was right after I started my new position. The team had just (literally two days before) come off a death march project, that had them working 14-16 hour days for 2 months. It was my second day on the job, and I pulled all of the team - Devs, Management, BAs, QA, into our large conference room. They were dealing with burnout, frustration, communication issues, unhappy people, and one or two personnel issues. What ensued I will happily describe as magical. We literally held an 18-month retrospective in the span of about 6 hours, addressing everything from the release, to the company being sold (they were sold right in the middle of the release cycle), to outsourcing, communication and other issues. The whole team was engaged, up and active, and on their own came up with some great solutions and goals to achieve. I had posted about it here: http://www.cornetdesign.com/2008/07/agile-retrospectives.html I find the single most important exercise to be one that requires everyone to say *something* - I usually use a variant of the "Check-In" pattern where I have everyone say one or two words. But having a team that even after all they had been through be willing to open up, discuss where they were, discuss where they wanted to go, and develop actionable items to get there was awesome. Hope that helps give a good story of how things can go right with a great team. One of the best ones was right after I started my new position. The team had just (literally two days before) come off a death march project, that had them working 14-16 hour days for 2 months. It was my second day on the job, and I pulled all of the team – Devs, Management, BAs, QA, into our large conference room. They were dealing with burnout, frustration, communication issues, unhappy people, and one or two personnel issues.

What ensued I will happily describe as magical. We literally held an 18-month retrospective in the span of about 6 hours, addressing everything from the release, to the company being sold (they were sold right in the middle of the release cycle), to outsourcing, communication and other issues. The whole team was engaged, up and active, and on their own came up with some great solutions and goals to achieve. I had posted about it here: http://www.cornetdesign.com/2008/07/agile-retrospectives.html

I find the single most important exercise to be one that requires everyone to say *something* – I usually use a variant of the “Check-In” pattern where I have everyone say one or two words. But having a team that even after all they had been through be willing to open up, discuss where they were, discuss where they wanted to go, and develop actionable items to get there was awesome.

Hope that helps give a good story of how things can go right with a great team.

]]> By: Doc http://www.stevenlist.com/blog/2009/03/31/best-and-worst-retrospectives/comment-page-1/#comment-399 Doc Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:53:15 +0000 http://www.stevenlist.com/blog/?p=378#comment-399 Thanks for the prompt, Gerry. I've added another story. I hope this will be enough to prime the pump - later I'll add more stories in a separate post. For now, I'd like to gather from others. Thanks for the prompt, Gerry. I’ve added another story. I hope this will be enough to prime the pump – later I’ll add more stories in a separate post. For now, I’d like to gather from others.

]]> By: Gerry Kirk http://www.stevenlist.com/blog/2009/03/31/best-and-worst-retrospectives/comment-page-1/#comment-398 Gerry Kirk Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:46:49 +0000 http://www.stevenlist.com/blog/?p=378#comment-398 Hi Doc, you might get more response if you throw up a few more examples. I know I was hoping to learn more from your experiences when I saw the link to your post on Twitter. @gerrykirk Hi Doc, you might get more response if you throw up a few more examples. I know I was hoping to learn more from your experiences when I saw the link to your post on Twitter.

@gerrykirk

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