Although this material may be found in a variety of places on the web, clients have often asked me to provide them write-ups and explanations.  Enclosed is a brief summary of the Iteration Retrospective.

Pre-Requisites

None (for the “basic” Retrospective)

Duration

1 to 1 ½ hours

Purpose

The purpose of Iteration Retrospective is for the Team, Product Owner and ScrumMaster to reflect on the Iteration and inspect and adapt.  There are a variety of ways to run a Iteration Retrospective, but the “basic” Retrospective poses three questions to the participants:

1. “What worked well?”
2. “What did not work well?”
3. “What should we change, add, or remove?”

Unless otherwise agreed to by the participants, the findings and discussions of an Iteration Retrospective are considered private to the team.  The reason is this is considered a “safe” meeting for the team.  They should feel free to discuss whatever they like without repercussion or concerns.

Often the Iteration Retrospective is under-valued by those new to Agile, but this is a very important activity.  This is the only meeting dedicated to improving the team.

Attendees

Participants¹

• Team
• ScrumMaster
• Product Owner (optional, but we feel it’s very beneficial to teaming if they attend)

Observers²

• None

Concludes

The Iteration Retrospective concludes when the team feels they’ve completed answering the 3 questions and when improvement actions are documented and assigned for the upcoming iteration.

Standard Scrum Ceremonies / Meetings