4.Ben Linders--Valuable Agile Retrospectives

Ben Linders Consulting 1 Valuable Agile Retrospectives QCon Beijing, April 25, 2015 Ben Linders Consulting Ben Linders Consulting 2 On the agenda today “What” and “why” of Retrospectives Business Value and Benefits Environment for Retrospectives Retrospective Exercises With agile retrospectives teams drive their own actions! Ben Linders Ben Linders Consulting 3 Agile, Lean, Quality & Continuous Improvement Retrospectives Facilitator Agile Coach/Mentor/Trainer CMMI & People-CMM Assessor Freelance Editor for InfoQ.com Ben Linders Co-Author Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives English Dutch French Japanese Spanish Italian Chinese Russian Polish German Author: What Drives Quality eBook: Download from Amazon, InfoQ or Leanpub Print: Buy on Amazon or Lulu Ben Linders Consulting 4 State of Practice Agile Retrospectives Doing them? Like doing them? Valuable? Ben Linders Consulting 5 Agile Retrospectives Practice for teams to reflect on their way of working and to continuously become better in what they do. Focus upon Team Self organizing What is an Agile Retrospectives Ben Linders Consulting 6 Prime Directive “Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.” Norm Kerth http:/www.retrospectives.com/ Create an Open Culture where team member Speak Up with Respect for each other to Learn and Improve Soft Skills Matter Ben Linders Consulting 7 Why Retrospectives? To help teams to solve problems and improve themselves! Becoming Agile and Lean Make existing processes more Agile Increase Value of Agile Less resistance to Change Ben Linders Consulting 8 Ben Linders Consulting 9 Environment for Retrospectives Adopting retrospectives is an organizational change where professionals adapt their way of working, their behavior - It wont just happen, and if not properly supported it may take much time, or even fail. Purpose Facilitation Do and Evaluate Adopting Agile Retrospectives Ben Linders Consulting 10 Purpose of Retrospectives Teams authority and responsibility on how they do their work No “first time right” Ok to fail, if you learn from it Continuous improvement Sustainable Improvement through Agile Retrospectives Ben Linders Consulting 11 Capable Retrospective Facilitators Facilitated by capable professionals: Qualified facilitators Train: Purpose, techniques, skills Mentoring & coaching Share & discuss experiences Agile Improvement Effective and Efficient Retrospectives: Vital few improvement actions Keep invested time low Ben Linders Consulting 12 Do and Evaluate Retrospectives Start with retrospectives in your first iteration Simple technique: asking questions or boat exercise Evaluate the Retrospective: Is this useful? Helps to get a shared understanding? Do the actions make sense? Does meeting as a team to reflect feel good? Ben Linders Consulting 13 Leading Retrospectives Roles Facilitator Servant Leader Coach Support Change Manager Arrange for Change All roles are needed Play the game together Action is in the interaction Ben Linders Consulting 14 Business Value Agile retrospectives help teams learn and improve, and increase their business value to their customers and the company Getting more Business Value: Expectations Limit Actions Follow up on Actions Getting Business Value out of Agile Retrospectives Ben Linders Consulting 15 Vital Few Actions Small Actions Frequent Change Focus on Value Stop Starting, Start Stopping Kanban Short Cycled Improvement Ben Linders Consulting 16 Follow up on Actions Visibility Check status Mentoring & Coaching on Continuous Improvement Making Quality & Process Improvement Visisble Uncovering Better Ways to do Process Improvement Golden Rules for Agile Process Improvement Ben Linders Consulting 17 Toolbox of Retrospective Exercises Teams differ Needs vary More value You can plan a retrospective meeting, and think about the exercise you want to use, but be open to change it on the spot whenever needed. Toolbox of Retrospective Techniques Ben Linders Consulting 18 Retrospective Exercises Asking questions One-word retrospective Root Cause Analysis Timeline Flow and Energy Asking Why? Strenghts (Solution Focused) Perfection game Action priorities Retrospective of Retrospectives Teams with multiple customers Remote Teams Futurespectives Book with Agile Retrospective Exercises Ben Linders Consulting 19 Examples The Sprint that failed Trust and Empowerment Deal with Feelings The team that wasnt a team yet Getting to know each other Skills & Open Culture Ben Linders Consulting 20 Designing your Retrospective amazon.com/dp/B00SWJO1DI benlinders.com/exercises/ nts