Sprint Retrospective: A Complete Guide With Best Practices

The sprint retrospective is an opportunity to inspect the situation within a team and create a plan for improvements.

The retrospective should create a safe space for people to share their honest feedback on what’s going well, what could be improved, and generate a discussion around things that should change next time around — with actionable items documented.

Agenda template

1. Introduction
2. Project Review
3. Lessons learned (Successes & Challenges)
4. Priorities: What matters most?
5. Improvements: Action-oriented planning
6. Summary

Before the meeting

1. Plan enough time: the rule of thumb is 30 minutes per week of project work
2. Make sure that everybody will be prepared: ask the team to come prepared with their key insights, observations, and ideas for improvement
3. Prepare a project report: review the original project definition, success criteria and any metrics you have regarding the project’s outcome
4. Refine the agenda: decide how you want to run the different parts of the meeting and update the agenda accordingly
5. Schedule the meeting: invite team members at least one week in advance (in the best scenario it should be a recurring meeting)
6. Prepare necessary materials: some retrospective techniques require additional supplies, such as sticky notes or online voting systems
7. Set roles: select a note-taker for the entire meeting.

During the meeting

Stages

1. Review the project: Start by reviewing the project facts: goals, timeline, budget, major events, and success metrics. In order to come up with useful ideas that everyone can agree on, the team needs a shared understanding of the facts from the sprint.
2. Discuss what worked well and what didn’t: This is the main part of the meeting. Follow the steps given below in the best practice section.
3. Identify specific ways to improve future work: To ensure that your…