Remember. The structure of a good retrospective….

Inspect and Adapt. Collecting feedback and adapting: these are the foundations of Scrum. After all, the Scrum Master is the driver of continuous improvement. Perhaps one of the most important times you do that as Scrum Master for your team is the Sprint Retrospective. But how do you do it right? In this article, we’ll give you the 5 steps you go through in each retrospective and immediately give you some examples of formats you can apply in each step.

Step 1 – Setting the Stage

The retrospective is a moment of collective reflection. It is important for everyone on the team to step back from the day-to-day. Create a safe environment with plenty of room for creativity. Find an inspiring environment where everything discussed stays indoors.

Formats: measure through a Weather Report how each team member is feeling. Create a flip chart with a scale from bad weather (thunderclouds, rain) to good weather (sunny). Make sure everyone is addressed and expressed.

Step 2 – Collect data

Collect all relevant data that may have affected the outcome of the sprint. Consider hard data such as planned versus realized items, average velocity, progress toward release, product quality and meetings outside the Scrum Team. But also include soft data such as happiness of team members, the challenge the sprint presented, mutual cooperation and communication. Also, don’t forget the improvement actions identified in your previous retrospective.

Formats: using Lines of Communication, visualize how information flows in and out of the team. Or create a Timeline of the sprint, visualizing events and associated impact.

Step 3 – Generate insights

Time for insight! Based on the data collected, you and the team create a common picture. Then you can do further problem analysis and draw subsequent conclusions.
Formats: try using 5 Whys to explore the root cause of a problem. Or look ahead – Remember the Future – and imagine that the next sprint went perfectly. What happened then? What did the team do differently?

Step 4 – Decide what to do

Action in the tent! Now you determine which concrete improvement actions you will implement in the next sprint. From the insights gained, select solution directions and draw up actions for them. Good improvement actions are concrete, clear and executable within a sprint. Keep it feasible and do not take on too much. So limit the number of improvements to 3 or so.

Formats: Identify with a Starfish what you want to start, stop, do more and do less or keep going as a team. Or measure with Low Hanging Fruit what the effort versus impact of each improvement action is and choose the one with the highest impact/lowest effort.

Step 5 – Close

Ok, almost done. The last step is to neatly close the retrospective. Reflect briefly on the retrospective: a little meta retrospective. Was everyone heard? Did you get the most value out of this event?

Formats: measure the Return On Time Invested with a Feedback by. Or discuss what was good about the retrospective and what will make the next retrospective even better with a Plus & Delta.

Want to know how to properly facilitate the other events? Then read on about Sprint Planning, Sprint Review and Daily Scrum. Or take our Scrum Master training course.