Agile Retrospectives

Book description

Project retrospectives help teams examine what went right and what went wrong on a project. But traditionally, retrospectives (also known as "post-mortems") are only helpful at the end of the project--too late to help. You need agile retrospectives that are iterative and incremental. You need to accurately find and fix problems to help the team today.

Now, Derby and Larsen show you the tools, tricks, and tips you need to fix the problems you face on a software development project on an on-going basis. You'll see how to architect retrospectives in general, how to design them specifically for your team and organization, how to run them effectively, how to make the needed changes, and how to scale these techniques up. You'll learn how to deal with problems, and implement solutions effectively throughout the project--not just at the end.

With regular tune-ups, your team will hum like a precise, world-class orchestra.

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Table of contents

  1. Agile Retrospectives
  2. Table of Contents
  3. What readers are saying about Agile Retrospectives
  4. Foreword
  5. Preface
  6. Introduction
  7. Chapter 1: Helping Your Team Inspect and Adapt
    1. 1.1 Set the Stage
    2. 1.2 Gather Data
    3. 1.3 Generate Insights
    4. 1.4 Decide What to Do
    5. 1.5 Close the Retrospective
  8. Chapter 2: A Retrospective Custom-Fit to Your Team
    1. 2.1 Learning About the History and Environment
    2. 2.2 Shaping the Goal for the Retrospective
    3. 2.3 Determining Duration
    4. 2.4 Structuring a Retrospective
    5. 2.5 Selecting Activities
  9. Chapter 3: Leading Retrospectives
    1. 3.1 Managing Activities
    2. 3.2 Managing Group Dynamics
    3. 3.3 Managing Time
    4. 3.4 Managing You
    5. 3.5 Taking Your Skills to the Next Level
  10. Chapter 4: Activities to Set the Stage
    1. 4.1 Activity: Check-In
    2. 4.2 Activity: Focus On/Focus Off
    3. 4.3 Activity: ESVP
    4. 4.4 Activity: Working Agreements
  11. Chapter 5: Activities to Gather Data
    1. 5.1 Activity: Timeline
    2. 5.2 Activity: Triple Nickels
    3. 5.3 Activity: Color Code Dots
    4. 5.4 Activity: Mad Sad Glad
    5. 5.5 Activity: Locate Strengths
    6. 5.6 Activity: Satisfaction Histogram
    7. 5.7 Activity: Team Radar
    8. 5.8 Activity: Like to Like
  12. Chapter 6: Activities to Generate Insights
    1. 6.1 Activity: Brainstorming/Filtering
    2. 6.2 Activity: Force Field Analysis
    3. 6.3 Activity: Five Whys
    4. 6.4 Activity: Fishbone
    5. 6.5 Activity: Patterns and Shifts
    6. 6.6 Activity: Prioritize with Dots
    7. 6.7 Activity: Report Out with Synthesis
    8. 6.8 Activity: Identify Themes
    9. 6.9 Activity: Learning Matrix
  13. Chapter 7: Activities to Decide What to Do
    1. 7.1 Activity: Retrospective Planning Game
    2. 7.2 Activity: SMART Goals
    3. 7.3 Activity: Circle of Questions
    4. 7.4 Activity: Short Subjects
  14. Chapter 8: Activities to Close the Retrospective
    1. 8.1 Activity: +/Delta
    2. 8.2 Activity: Appreciations
    3. 8.3 Activity: Temperature Reading
    4. 8.4 Activity: Helped, Hindered, Hypothesis
    5. 8.5 Activity: Return on Time Invested (ROTI)
  15. Chapter 9: Releases and Project Retrospectives
    1. 9.1 Preparing for Release and Project Retrospectives
    2. 9.2 Including Cross-Organizational Perspectives
    3. 9.3 Leading Release and Project Retrospectives
    4. 9.4 A Retrospective at Every Ending
  16. Chapter 10: Make It So
    1. 10.1 Provide Support
    2. 10.2 Share Responsibility for Making Changes
    3. 10.3 Supporting Larger Changes
  17. Appendix 1: Facilitation Supplies
  18. Appendix 2: Debriefing Activities
  19. Appendix 3: Activities Quick Reference Matrix
  20. Appendix 4: Resources for Learning Facilitation Skills
  21. Appendix 5: Bibliography
    1. You May Be Interested In…

Product information

  • Title: Agile Retrospectives
  • Author(s): Esther Derby, Diana Larsen, Ken Schwaber
  • Release date: July 2006
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780977616640