Use the first few minutes of your meeting to establish an open and informal tone where people can feel comfortable bringing up ideas. Gather Data And Get A Different Retrospective Every Time Let people know that the objective of the retrospective is to focus on actionable items and refining current practice and activity. He is an agile coach who can be reached on Twitter at @lgoncalves1979. “This retrospective is a bi-weekly recurring Scrum retrospective for the ABC team. Set The Stage. First, you want to set a tone that fosters connection and intimacy. 4Ls Retrospective . Set the stage. Usually retrospectives are a little more sophisticated than that. How you start anything is how you’ll finish, So it’s never a good idea to start your retrospective off on the wrong foot. Hi guys, this week I offer you a small Agile Retrospective Set The Stage Exercise that can be used at your retrospectives. During the "set the stage" step it seems like a lot of the excercises revolve around identifying the moods and feelings of team members. Purpose: Welcome the team, show appreciation for everyone’s time investment, provide the purpose of the retrospective meeting and outline the desired goals. Set the stage in 30 seconds or less. Set 5 chairs facing each other at the center of the room. Step #1: Set the stage (5 mins) The first few minutes of your retrospective meeting are about setting expectations and getting the team warmed up. Part 1: Set the stage. Pose a simple question to the team to set the stage. Here are some things that can help: (a). 1.3.2 Phase 2: Check Hypothesis. Step 4: Conduct your remote retrospective like a pro. A retrospective is an opportunity to learn and improve. Appreciation Postcards - longer version Appreciation post cards - shorter version (Safety Check) ESVP (Safety Check) Temperature reading (Safety Check) Weather report What to do when safety is low in a retrospective Check-In Question Amazon review Three words Greetings from the iteration Take a stand Gather the team together and remind everyone that the purpose of the retrospective is to reflect on the past week(s), discuss what happened and what you can learn from that, and determine specific action(s) for moving forward. Step 1: Set the Stage. As a first step, I went through all the exercises listed for the different stages and picked my choices from them. And, it contributes to creating an atmosphere where people feel comfortable discussing issues. Retromat provides a lot of exercises for each of those stages. Set the Stage. It is time set aside – outside of day-to-day routine – to reflect on past events and behaviors. Using this simple framework, reflect back on your work and use what you've learned to improve as a team. As mentioned briefly, there are many interpretations of what makes a successful retrospective and which retrospective tools are worth using. For this part it is needed to have a short introduction activity to have everyone getting started. The purpose of “Setting the stage” is to get everyone engaged and thinking about the same theme. Let’s find out how to do that… The 5 Steps In An Agile Retrospective Running a sprint retrospective is no biggie. Believe me—it’s a lot of fun! In fact, many good retrospective facilitators follow the five-stage approach that Diana Larsen and Esther Derby outlined in their book, Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great: ‍ 1. Here are the five essential steps and tips to make the sprint retrospective better: The very first step is to set the stage. They break down retrospectives into 5 stages: Set the Stage: an ice breaker activity helps teammates focus and get mentally ready for the retrospective. The purpose of the Check Hypothesis phase is to review the hypotheses created at the last retrospective. For co-located teams, draw a picture of a sailboat floating in water, and fill half the space above and half below the water with the sun, clouds, rocks, and a couple of islands—or you can simply print pictures and just attach them to the board or any available wall space. 5 Steps for Conducting Sprint Retrospective Meeting. In several previous posts I wrote about the retrospective which is a key event and perhaps the most important in the Scrum Framework.We explored how the retrospective doesn’t need to be fast, how to improve retrospectives, and how to set the stage for a successful retro.. Set the Stage Setting the stage is often a quick activity that helps set the mood for the retro and/or help the retro leader decide how to conduct the rest of the retro. How are you feeling today? Set the stage; Gather data; Generate insights; Decide what to do; Close the retrospective. Sprint Retrospective Process . There might be ideas where there are differences of perception. It has five sections, each with a specific goal. You should set the stage so every member of the team feels comfortable. Prep Time 5 mins . Setting the stage is exactly what it sounds like. This is the first post of my blog post series about the five phases of a Scrum Retrospective. Use it as part of the analysis stage of your retrospective. November 26, 2019 retrotools Leave a comment. There are many different exercises out there that can be used to start a retrospective… CONSTELLATION – AGILE RETROSPECTIVE SET THE STAGE EXERCISE. Setting the stage helps people focus on the work at hand. Start with a simple welcome and appreciation for people’s investment of time. You only need to go through these five simple steps: Set the stage Desired outcome: Everyone in the room is focused and understands the expected objectives from the retrospective. ‍ 2. We are on Sprint 12 out of 30.” “In 14 days, our artifact should reach the main production stage.” “Feature XYZ exploded in production, bringing the servers down for 2 hours until sys-admin could bring the older version back up.” For example, recently we played bear-ninja-cowboy, which is a variation of rock-paper-scissors. Set the Stage. It is a step to have the participants enter the retrospective mood without quickly diving into it. Set the stage for the next iteration planning meeting However, to experience all these benefits, you need to conduct the sprint retrospective meeting properly. In advance, send a Retrospective reminder: With that, the team can evaluate previous thinking and come up with better ideas. "Set the Stage" in Retrospectives Luis Goncalves was a student of the Coaching Agile Teams class in 2012 where he was exposed to Constellations. In this step, you want to help your team members feel relaxed and connected while critically thinking together. ... Set the stage 5 MIN. To do so in a structured way, I … However, some of these exercises seem too vague or too specific. A low-stakes exercise can help. Think of a bad meeting you’ve had in the past, how did that meeting start? Sprint retrospective is considered one of the most indispensable meetings in Scrum. To do this I reminded people of the actions we had set ourselves from the last retrospective, then asked each person to complete the sentence “If we were a military commando, and our mission was last retrospective’s actions, we would be Setting the Stage. Gather Data: expand people’s perspective on the facts and create a shared understanding of the events/issues that occurred during a sprint. This article describes some lessons that I learned from this unusual experience. It should be the team’s safe place. that can be used for the different steps of Agile Retrospective meetings. The goal of this first phase is to establish an open and enthusiastic ecosystem for the team to be mentally present for ready to reflect and share. 1. It’s a great time to remind people that the goal is not to blame individuals but identify behaviours, policies or actions that might be improved. Let the team choose one: happiness, frustration, sadness, pride, etc. Gather Data Ice-breakers are relevant exercises to achieve this state of mind. If you need retrospective ideas to accommodate a large group, stop searching—the fishbowl conversation is ideal. For this session, we borrowed consulting company Crisp’s Team Happiness, an exercise I … retro part I. set the stage (5 minutes) Set the tone for the retrospective session: Thank everyone for attending; Emphasize the importance of open and … Set the Stage Run Time 60 mins . Setting the stage. Jump to instructions . Close the Retrospective; Set the stage ‘Set the stage’ means priming your team for discussion. Set the stage. Set the Stage If you want people to be engaged and willing to work with you, it’s a good idea to take a moment to thank them for investing their time in the retrospective, as doing so will make them feel like valued contributors. Help the team focus on the retrospective and creates a safe and respectful environment. Rate it from 1 to 10. A well done agile retrospective offers a number of benefits. Setting the Stage. Set the stage – Goal: Set the tone and direction for the retrospective; Gather data – Goal: Create a shared memory; highlight pertinent information and events Below is a retrospective structure popularised by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen in their book Agile Retrospectives. In this case, the … I couldn’t imagine that “Prisoner” would become so literal for me - until I found myself in a real prison facilitating a Retrospective for a group of my cellmates, political prisoners. Start with a game, like asking each team member to summarize the Sprint using only three words. Let people know that the objective of the retrospective is to address the current velocity of the project and how the team can improve this. I will cover the most crucial ideas for Phase 1: Setting the Stage. 1. People 2-8 . Advocates of Derby and Larsen’s Agile Retrospectives approach champion the “Set the stage” exercise to get things started. It reiterates the goal for the time the team has together in the retrospective. Some examples are: What kind of emotions do you feel from the last project, release, or iteration you worked on? As a reminder, in our New Year’s Eve retrospective, we set the stage by looking at the photos and videos from the past year. So in this post, we’d focus on one of the most classic retrospective frameworks, promised by the Agile Retrospectives book by Esther Derby. Wasn't there a kid's book published around the early to mid 1980's Ten people from 20 to 60 years old. Have everyone gather in a larger circle around the chairs. In Project Retrospectives, Kerth introduced the Prime Directive, a statement intended to help set the stage for the retrospective.