Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great

Have zombies taken over your retrospective? Maybe the Sprint teams seems more like hungry mastiffs that won’t stop barking? Perhaps you are wondering if ESVP is a misspelling of ESP? If you have answered yes to the above questions, this is the retrospective book for you!I’m a Scrum Master. I have encountered all sorts of outcomes, outbursts and out-of-this-world scenarios in retrospectives. This book was a lifesaver when I needed more ideas how to engage my Sprint teams. Every chapter has a take away. For example, in the very first chapter, a retrospective is described, start to finish, with activities included, and closes with a make-believe but real-world outcome. The authors offer a prescribed structured format that keeps people engaged, focused and ontrack.The chapter on “Setting the stage” is a great kick-off to a retrospective that keeps your Sprint team members from turning into the undead. The game “ESVP” is when the team members say whether they are “Explorers”, “Shoppers”, “Vacationers” or “Prisoners.” It can be really telling where the Sprint team is based on their answers.The book also gives advice on dealing with dominating people and toxic people. Ever have someone just start barking at people in a retrospective? I have copied the authors’ exact phrasing when speaking to someone who will not lower their voice. There are more great “go-to-phrases” when you are at a loss for words or don’t know how to respond to an unfamiliar situation.The only thing I would add to this book is a chapter on dealing with remote teams. How do you keep people awake with the sound of your voice when they are an ocean away? Use real-time tools like google draw/google forms to re-create these games. It’s not rocket science to build a fishbone diagram online. I have discovered that any interaction with remote tools, even just voting “thumbs up”, makes a huge difference in the engagement of a remote team. And, can keep team members from impersonating the walking dead.

This book has a lot activities to manage a retrospective meeting in software development, but I think some of techniques are not only effective in agile projects, you can use some of them in team management to give and receive feedback. Sadly the book has few examples about retrospective meetings and I expected to know more about how to manage different situations than what activities I should use.

I have yet to regret a purchase from the Pragmatic Bookshelf. The books are clear and concise with pretty easy to implement action plans, and this one is no exception.If you are like me, you have found that traditional "lessons learned" meetings after projects were held rarely, and a rarer number of these actually generated anything of any impact on future work. In some of my readings about Agile Software Development, I read that Agile Teams have retrospectives regularly with each iteration. I thought this was interesting, but didn't really know what to do. Enter this book.The authors do a great job of outlining how the process should work and why each of the phases of are important. The give good coverage of* Setting the Stage* Gathering Information* Generating Insights* Deciding What to Do* Closing the RetrospectiveNot only do they explain the general process, but they give a fairly extensive list of activities to use for each phase with suggestions about which ones work in different situations. After reading this book, I was able to immediately turn around and facilitate a rertrospective for my team's latest project release.This book is about all that you could ask for. The material is rich, but the amount of material is fairly short and quick to read. It is very focused and clear on how to take action. I would recommend investing in this book to anyone who wants to do a better job of *truly* learning from past project experience.

This book is a must have for any Scrum Master or Aglie coach. It is a valuable resource that you can draw from while preparing the best retrospectives

This book is one that is recommended by the Project Management Institute (PMI) to read for understanding of agile software development and to prepare for the PMI Agile Project Manager certification. It provides valuable information to guide agile team retrospectives. While not every technique may apply to every development team, some can and will. Good reference source.

Forget about this book if you wan't to learn theoretical stuff. There is some tiny theory in it, of course, but most of it is a pure practical guide for you to lead better retrospectives.As a practical guide it is a must-read. At the beginning the authors lay the foundation of what they believe makes great retrospectives. The they tell us about each different phase of a retrospective. Finally, there is an impressive list of activities, for each stage of the retrospective. Each activity in this list is very well described: its purpose, time needed, a brief description, a step-by-step guide for the leader, and a list of materials needed.Bottom line: if your leading agile retrospectives, you really should take a look at this book.

Reviewing this book now in the context of the 11 books the Project Management Institute (PMI) originally recommended to read to prepare for the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) exam. Of that 4,500 page reading list this was refreshing, trite, accessible, and eminently useful to those practicing agile in the trenches. Having road tested the recommended techniques I assure, this book is the real deal. This book is less about grand theories than about common sense practices to get teams to inspect and adapt their work on a periodic basis without going stale over longer durations.That is not to say that there are not some grand theories within.Consider this book and essential field guide for those practicing Agile Project Management. Of the 11 on the PMI list this book is clearly a must buy!