17 retrospective sprint examples for exciting final sprints (2023)

Keeping your agile team engaged is critical, so testing a different one using different end-of-sprint retrospective examples can fix things. You want it to be as fun as possible. We spend a lot of time being serious at work.

Regardless of whether it is XP, Scrum(examples for scrum masters)Hindsight, Kanban, is one of the most important events for the success of a team.

The best retrospectives I've been to were the less serious, laid-back meetings. The team was comfortable with each other and didn't care what they said. As an Agile Coach, it is your responsibility to calm down the team.

Retrospectives bring a team together, providing an opportunity to celebrate what went well, but also to reflect on what could have been better and how to improve.

Facilitate a Sprint Retrospective

The retrospective technique is short meetings that are held at the end of each team sprint. These meetings are great for building teams and also finding gaps in the development process. During the meeting, the teams should come together and share ideas.

The format should be as simple as possible:

1. Start with icebreakerwhere they play simple games to bring members together and set the atmosphere for members to feel comfortable giving honest feedback
2. setting the stagefeaturing retrospective themes and templates so members can be ready with their feedback
3. combining ideasof different people on the team, giving each individual the opportunity to provide their contributions
4. priority votewhere members see what matters most and what to expect
5. stock tracking, how to solve the problems that arose in the process of project execution

After each release/iteration, the Scrum Master/Team Leader must perform a retrospective which can also be called an intraspective. The purpose of the retrospective is to improve methods and teamwork by reviewing the previous iteration/release. There are 3 core questions that need to be answered in every retrospective:

1. what's going well
2. What areas can be improved
3. What should we be doing differently?

A retrospective is usually limited to 2 hours and is based on brainstorming solutions and committing to a solution and discussing again if success adds to the process. Retrospectives can be very effective as they take place during the development process and provide immediate feedback on the performance of the process. If used correctly, flashbacks can result in:

• improved productivity
• improved ability
• improved quality
• improved ability

Esther Derby and Diana Larsen defined a 5-step process for doing retrospectives.

Step 1: Set the stage

Setting the stage is all about setting the tone for the meeting and getting the team on board. Retrospectives work best when there is a lot of engagement and genuine feedback from the team. It is recommended that people speak up early, introducing themselves and their roles, but if team members don't change very often, this could be seen as overkill. The Scrum Master/Team Leader then sets an agenda and rules for the meeting. To increase the comfort level of team members to participate in the meeting, the team can play the following games

Check in:Round robin where people give 2 sentences about what they want from retro

Focus on/off:Get people to give feedback on every pair of words, ie. Conversation x Argument, Understanding x Defense

ESVP:Staff anonymously identify their attitude toward retrospectives as one of the following:

• Explorers: Eager to discover new ideas
• Buyers: look for useful information and go home with 1 idea
• Vacationers: Not into retro but happy to be away from work
• Prisoners: feel compelled to attend

Total scores are kept and individual votes are discarded. The team is then asked how they feel about the results.

Work agreements: small groups and create agreements, create master list

Step 2: collect the data

The next step is to collect feedback from team members about what happened during the iteration. The goal is to determine a common vision for the iteration. The team leader can use the following team-based facilitation techniques to achieve greater interaction among team members:

1. Timeline – The team creates an iteration timeline that highlights milestones, the issues that occurred during the iteration.
2. Triple Nickles: 5 groups get 5 minutes on 5 ideas 5 times
3. Color-coded dots: The team uses sticky dots to show emotions where emotions were high/low during the iteration.
4. Angry, sad, happy: The team uses color cards to describe the emotional reactions during the iteration.
5. Find strengths: The team looks at what went well during the iteration.
6. Satisfaction histogram: The team uses a histogram to demonstrate the satisfaction of specific parts of the iteration.
7. Team Radar: Team assesses performance against previous process improvement goals
8. Like: The team recalls experiences during the iteration and compares reactions to events.

Paso 3: Gere os Insights

Once the data about the iteration has been collected, it needs to be evaluated. The data can be evaluated using the followingBrainstorming Techniques:

1. Five Whys: The team works in pairs where they analyze a problem and try to find a solution by asking "Why?" numerous times to any reason for the problem, helping to determine thePrimary cause.
2. Fishbone Diagram Analysis: Also called an Ishikawa diagram, this is a technique used to identify the root cause demonstrated in the diagram on the left. The team draws the diagram, each branch is an area, and within that branch are the possible reasons for that branch. The diagram should have all the possible causes and the origin of the problem.
3. Prioritize with Points: The team uses points to vote on what is important to them.
4. Identify Themes – The team identifies recurring patterns in the data collected.

Step 4: Decide what to do

Once the data has been evaluated and the team has an idea of ​​the problems, they must decide how to fix them. A technique called "circle of questions" can be used to provide people with opportunities to provide solutions where one person chooses a problem and the next person proposes a solution.

It is very important that all the objectives created to solve a problem are SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely). This will help ensure that the goals can be achieved in the next iteration and can be reviewed later. To categorize issues, the team can use an action wheel where each item is categorized by simply choosing to Keep/Discard/Add or Start/More/Less.

Step 5: Close the Sprint Retrospective

The final step of the retrospective is its formal closing. The 4 tasks identified to close the retrospective are:

1. Plus/Delta: what they want to do more and want to change
2. Helped, Hindered, Hypothesis: Feedback on the retrospective itself, giving everyone an opportunity to provide feedback.
3. Return on Time Spent: Level 1-5 Team Meeting
4. Acknowledgments: Team members express appreciation for each other.

Esther Derby and Diana Larsen going through 5 stages

>> For more information, check out this PDF excerpt from the book Esther & Dianna

Mistakes to Avoid in End-of-Sprint Retrospectives

17 of Our Favorite Agile Retrospective Examples

Happy, Sad, Crazy Retro Sprint Template

This is a template for design thinking. Instead of looking at the actual progress of the project, the model looks at the emotions of the team members. If teams are feeling burned out or burned out, the three columns can help them express their emotions and review the issues affecting them.

start, stop, continue

To beretrospective modelIt does as its name says. It allows you to outline what needs to start, what needs to stop, and what needs to continue. There are three columns for these three sections and members can use them to generate ideas.

Sailboat Retrospective Template

Nosailboat retrospectivesthe sailboat, represent teams. The sailboat must lead the teams towards the objectives. Therefore, it is a good tool to assess progress at all stages of the project. Analyze the successes in terms of wind (which pushes the sailboat forward) and the goals in terms of island (where the teams must go).

He sees the anchors as challenges that hold the team back and the rocks as threats on the way. After the teams provide feedback based on this, they can scale.

retrospective starfish model

This template helps you discover what team members got out of a project sprint. It is called so, thanks to the five arms of the model. This includes what to keep doing, what to do less of, what to stop doing, what to start doing, and what to do more.

Online version:The Starfish Retrospective Template | retro subway

retrospective 4L

The 4L model has four quadrants where teams can enter what they liked, what they learned, what they lacked, and what they wanted. Teams can be in small groups where they can brainstorm for each of the quadrants. From the ideas that enter the quadrants, they can create a plan for moving forward.

I liked, I learned, I missed

This is a three column template. It works the same as the retrospective 4L model. In this case, you will have a column of what you liked, what you learned, and what you missed. Teams can work in small groups to brainstorm.

Feedback degree

A feedback grid has four sections. It is useful when project teams need to record feedback after testing the product. All positive and negative comments should be in the grid to ensure nothing is lost when the project ends. The four quadrants have the following sections: Questions, Ideas, Reviews, and Likes. Teams can fill out sections with digital sticky notes, or they can have a physical board with sticky notes.

Three Little Pigs

To bemodelallows teams to identify short-, medium-, and long-term actions to complete the project. You can use it to analyze the current condition and project the future. The template is in three columns. House of Straw for things that could fall apart at any moment, House of Wands for things that need to improve, and House of Bricks for things that are stable and don't need to change.

rose, thorn, bud

The rose represents what worked and must continue. The thorn represents the challenges you have been through and the cocoon represents the opportunities and possibilities that the team has. These three sections appear in columns where you and other team members can provide feedback.

I like it, I want it, what if?

If you're looking for a model of design thinking, this will give you the platform you need. You can use it to think about the next steps of the project before starting the implementation. The model is capable of turning negative feedback into constructive criticism.

working and stuck

The Working & Stuck model examines what is currently working and needs to continue and what is not working (is stuck) and needs to be stopped or improved. There are only two columns in the template where you can fill in your ideas.

quick hindsight

If you are short on time and need constant project updates, you can use this template. It is a simple template with four sections. The first section discusses what was right, the second what was wrong, the third provides ideas for improvement, and the fourth is for actions to take.

anchors and engines

Anchors are things that prevent a project from progressing while drivers are things that propel a project forward. Teams should work in groups to brainstorm what is included in each column.

Mountaineer's Retrospective

This is a retrospective model that requires the team to imagine themselves on top of a mountain. To get there, they needed ropes (things that helped them), they struggled with rocks (unforeseen events) and the weather (challenges), and they needed first aid (problem solutions).

Learned lessons

This is a great retro template for teams reviewing work at the end of the project. It gives teams a platform to learn lessons from the development process. Through it, teams document victories and failures and can use it when working on other projects in the future. The template has four quadrants where teams list successful, failed, planned, and unplanned activities.

Retrospective Trello Agile Templates

Hot Air Balloon Retrospective

This retro template works just like the retro sailboat template. With this model, teams need to see themselves floating in the air and fighting against elements like wind, hot air, sun, storms and weight. While there is no metaphor for the goal, the model helps teams analyze the challenges they may encounter along the way.

You can organize agile retrospectives in any of the following templates:

Why are agile retrospective templates important?

It is essential for all agile teams, including remote teams. It provides the time teams need to reflect and review the progress of a project. A team will also find ways to make things better. In addition to finding cheats, teams get a chance to celebrate the success and progress they've made thus far.

Other benefits thatagile retrospectiveoffers include:

• Improved communication between team members.
• It's time to resolve any issues between members and de-escalate issues before they escalate
• Inform all members of any challenges and remind them of the project goals.
• Empower agile teamsto solve problems on your own
• Plan future actions as a team
• Provide an opportunity for team building and energize teams.

Agile retrospective templates are ideal as they provide a simple framework for teams to gather feedback. Unlike a spreadsheet, which doesn't have a fun structure, templates are simple and easy for teams to use and remember.

Software development teams (scrum team) will benefit most from retrospective models. However, the templates work perfectly for different projects. You can do an agile retrospective after every sprint or at the end of a development project. If you have short projects (a few weeks), you can do a review after the project is complete. However, if your project lasts a few months, you may need to hold a retrospective event after a sprint.

Agile End-of-Sprint Retrospective FAQ