A deeper dive into retrospectives concepts and techniques

1. Situational
Retrospectives
Richard Cheng
© 2022 NextUp Solutions

2. Richard
Cheng
 VP of Training and Chief Product Owner
 CST, CSM, CSPO, CSP, PMI-ACP, PMP, SAFe
SPC, Certified LeSS Practitioner, CAL, Certified
Enterprise Scrum Trainer, Training from the Back
of the Room Certified Instructor
 Based in Reston, VA (outside of Washington, DC)
 Background working with government,
commercial, and non-profit organizations

3. Contact Information
Richard Cheng
richard.cheng@nextupsolutions.com
https://www.nextupsolutions.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardcheng
https://www.linkedin.com/company/nextupsolutions/
https://twitter.com/RichardKCheng
https://twitter.com/NextUpSolutions
https://meetings.hubspot.com/richard-cheng

4. Our Certified Agile Training
Coming Soon:

5. AGILE COACHING
Learning Agile patterns is easy.
Implementing them in the middle of your
complex, existing business may not
be. That’s where our staff of expert Agile
coaches can help with your longer-term
transformation needs.
Our Agile coaching services include:
•Enterprise-wide Agile transformations
•Agile scaling consultations
•Dedicated public sector training
•Organizational Agile assessments
…and more.
Learn more at nextupsolutions.com/coaching.

6. MEET
Top organizations engage NextUp’s development unit,
Exelaration, to design and build custom software to
improve their business. Anchored by experts with decades
of experience across a variety of tech stacks, Exelaration
mobilizes teams of engineers from top university programs
to deliver state-of-the-art technology solutions on-time and
on-budget.
Learn more at exelaration.com.

7. How would you facilitate this retro?
Scenario A
Your team is great. You've continually met all your sprint goals and your Product Owner is pleased
with the results to date. Yeah!
Scenario B
Your team did not do so well. Zero story points completed last sprint. Team members are
complaining and blaming each other for the failures.

8. How would you facilitate this retro?
Scenario A
Your team is great. You've continually met all your sprint goals and your Product Owner is pleased
with the results to date. Yeah!
Our retros:
• How can we provide more business value?
• How can we get our product to production faster?
• How can we share and make the other teams better?
• How can we make the world a better place?

9. How would you facilitate this retro?
Scenario B
Your team did not do so well. Zero story points completed last sprint. Team members are
complaining and blaming each other for the failures.
What we did:
ScrumMaster approached each team member prior to the retrospective and asked them to think
about hour our next sprint will be successful.

10. Retrospective Prime Directive
Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly
believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what
they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources
available, and the situation at hand.
-- Norm Kerth

11. Retrospective Structure*
1. Set the Stage
2. Gather Data
3. Generate Insights
4. Decide What to Do
5. Close
* from Agile Retrospectives – Making Good Teams Great

12. Retrospective Techniques

13. +/Δ (Pluses and Deltas)
Pluses – What went well
Deltas – What we want to do different

14. Silent Writing and Dot Voting
Silent Writing
Team members silently write down their thoughts and then post or share the thoughts
Dot Voting
Each team member gets X number of votes to distribute across a selection of items

15. Starfish

16. Niko-Niko Calendar
http://agiletrail.com/2011/09/12/how-to-track-the-teams-mood-with-a-niko-niko-calendar/

17. Team Radar Delivering Business Value
Asking & Receiving Feedback
Responding to Change
Understanding Vision & Goal
Planning
Applying Technical Practices
Working as a Team
Continuously Improving
Sprint 1 Team Self Assessment

18. Team Radar
Delivering Business Value
Asking & Receiving Feedback
Responding to Change
Understanding Vision & Goal
Planning
Applying Technical Practices
Working as a Team
Continuously Improving
Sprint 5 Team Self Assessment

19. Draw Me a Picture
1. Ask the attendees to silently reflect on
the on the events of the last iteration or
release
2. Ask them to draw a picture reflecting
their feelings
3. Place the picture on the wall
4. In turn, let each participant describe
their picture and provide a title
5. Try to observe patterns to highlight
significant events or impediment

20. Future-spective
Imagine a date in the future
Run a retrospective to identify
• Where we are?
• How did we get here?

21. 5 Whys
Why?
Because
the battery
is dead
Why?
The
alternator
is not
functioning
Why?
The
alternator
belt is
broken
Why?
Belt was
well beyond
its useful
service life
Why?
Belt was
never
replaced
Why?
Not
following
the service
schedule
My Car Won’t Start

22. Brainstorm via Mind Map
A visual way to organize brainstorming
around a topic.

23. Retrospective Techinques
Look at the techniques on the rights.
• Which techniques have you had?
• Any questions about these techniques?
• Any techniques not listed that you would like
to share?
Techniques:
– Pluses and Deltas
– Silent Writing
– Dot Voting
– Star Fish
– Niko Niko
– Team Radar
– Draw Me a Picture
– Future-spective
– 5 Whys
– Mindmapping

24. How can I tell if we are effective in our retrospectives?
1. Are we making the same mistakes time and time again?
2. Are we encountering the same issues time and time again?
3. Are we getting better over time or are we stuck where we are?

25. Rich’s Retrospective Checklist for Problem Solving
1. Did we talk about it in the Retrospective
2. Did we discuss the impact?
3. Did we identify root causes?
4. Did we come up with solutions?
5. Have we tried the solutions?
6. What were the initial results?
7. What are next steps from here?

26. Rich’s Retrospective Checklist for Improving
1. What is the area for improvement?
2. What is the impact of the improvement?
3. What are the actionable next steps for improvement?
4. How do we measure the improvement?
5. What were the initial results?
6. What are next steps from here?

27. Celebrate what you do well!!!

28. Common Questions
1. Who is in the retrospective?
2. Who should NOT be in the retrospective?
3. How long should a retrospective last?
4. Can the retrospective happen before Sprint Review?
5. Who facilitates the retrospective?

29. Retrospective Resources
• Retromat - https://retromat.org/
• Recess Kit - https://recesskit.com/
• Fun Retrospectives - https://www.funretrospectives.com/
• Liberating Structures - https://www.liberatingstructures.com/

30. Closing thought
1. Think about the biggest problem plaguing your team or project
2. How long has it been an issue
3. Is there an effective way to form a retrospective to deal with this problem

31. Books

32. Contact Information
Richard Cheng
richard.cheng@nextupsolutions.com
https://www.nextupsolutions.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardcheng
https://www.linkedin.com/company/nextupsolutions/
https://twitter.com/RichardKCheng
https://twitter.com/NextUpSolutions
https://meetings.hubspot.com/richard-cheng

33. Our Certified Agile Training
Coming Soon:

34. AGILE COACHING
Learning Agile patterns is easy.
Implementing them in the middle of your
complex, existing business may not
be. That’s where our staff of expert Agile
coaches can help with your longer-term
transformation needs.
Our Agile coaching services include:
•Enterprise-wide Agile transformations
•Agile scaling consultations
•Dedicated public sector training
•Organizational Agile assessments
…and more.
Learn more at nextupsolutions.com/coaching.

35. MEET
Top organizations engage NextUp’s development unit,
Exelaration, to design and build custom software to
improve their business. Anchored by experts with decades
of experience across a variety of tech stacks, Exelaration
mobilizes teams of engineers from top university programs
to deliver state-of-the-art technology solutions on-time and
on-budget.
Learn more at exelaration.com.