Sprint Retrospective

The Goal

The goal of the retrospective is continuous improvement. Consider all aspects of how the team functioned during the sprint and identify things that went well. It’s also a time to make any changes necessary to improve the functionality of the team, the quality of the product being produced, and the team’s velocity.

As a Product Owner, you’ll need to prioritize actions based on what the team learned this past sprint.

Open And Honest

The retrospective is a private meeting where team members can be open about their struggles and pain points.

Although the sponsor is not invited to this meeting, he or she will be interested in how the team is functioning and whether he needs to provide support in any way.

Be prepared to share action items from the retrospective with the sponsor that they might be able to help execute.

Be open to your team’s feedback about the project. In some cases, their performance will improve as the team gets its footing. In other cases, they may bring up significant issues that require you to reevaluate aspects of the project.

Good Questions to Ask

• Did the Scrum Master or Disciplined Agile Lean Scrum Master do a good job of setting a tone of safety and openness for the meeting?
• Did team members appear to feel safe enough to talk about their pain points, identify ways that they can improve their performance, and ask for help?
• Were there clear lessons learned?
• Did these lessons lead to actionable adjustments the team can make?
• Did the team actually execute on the actionable adjustments in the upcoming sprint?

Highlight Accomplishments

Meet with your Scrum Master or Disciplined Agile Scrum Master and sponsor after the meeting is held.

Seek out your sponsor’s impression of the progress made. Take time to highlight the accomplishments of the team and what went well.