Do you know how well your retrospectives are going on? If you’ve read our last article on Agile retrospectives, you probably remember that we strongly advised all Scrum Masters and Agile team leaders to vary their retrospective format.
But picking a new format is not all. One should know what went well and what needs to improve during the retrospective itself. A “mise en abyme” of the retrospective, crucial to get the full benefit of the process.
When ending a retrospective, Scrum Masters and other Agile team leaders may have a hard time stepping back and reflecting on what happened. So, to help you improve the improvement meeting (a.k.a. the retro), we’ve created a simple tool: the Retro Canvas.
👉The left part can be used as a diary to introspect and reflect on what happened during the retro. It is divided into 3 sections:
> In the “Outcomes” section, write down the main discussions and learnings you want to remember from the meeting.
> “Happy with the Retro?”: just share your feeling on how the last retrospective went.
> In the “Retro improvement ideas” section, write down all your thoughts on how to make the retrospective even better.
👉The right part traces all the action items that have been decided during the retrospective. You can use it to log what needs to be done, when, and by whom. Filling out this section will be very useful when the time has come to review them at the next retrospective.
If you want to do it properly, take the time to fill the Retro Canvas soon after the meeting is over. Sprint after Sprint, you will identify areas of improvement and make this important ritual as useful and seamless as possible for the team.
Last piece of advice: improving your Retrospectives is a virtuous process, one that can also involve your team members or your peers (on Reddit, Agile Uprising, or directly from your network). Good luck!
Header picture by Alexa_Fotos from Pixabay