The final principle for a great retrospective is what happens after the retrospective. We are all good at identifying the problem, but we also need to make a counteraction or implement the improvement. The activities to reach the improvement will often require different skills than the traditional, and the development team member might disapprove. As a consequence, it will not be the first item to pull. Here, a Scrum Master can help create focus on this during e.g., the Daily Scrum.
Consistency is one of the most important principles for getting the inspect and adapt process up and running. One challenge with the Scrum Framework is that the retrospective is placed at the very end of the sprint. The Daily Scrum event is a daily inspection and adaptation for the team, but it serves another purpose. I will argue that consistency, especially in the Sprint Retrospective, is the path towards being a successful scrum team.
It comes as no surprise that facilitation of any agile event is quite important, yet many tend to spend very little time on facilitation once the iterations are rolling. While every agile event requires facilitation there are some unique elements to be aware of in the retrospective.
Let me briefly clarify what I mean by “context” before continuing. Context could be structural elements like the team is formed a cross multiple departments. It could be a newly formed team. It could be the maturity and experience levels of each team member. I prefer to understand the environment and circumstances in which the team operates. This insight is utilized to optimize planning and facilitation of the retrospective.
When getting into a new area, whether its facilitation, new tools or practices, I prefer a structured approach, in order to fulfill the basic need of the given topic or event. This article series is not a silver bullet, and you will have many failed facilitation attempts even though you follow this formula I’m suggesting. See it as guiding principles that should be adapted to the person, team and context.