Project Retrospectives

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Project Retrospectives

• Linda Rising
• risingl_at_acm.org
• www.lindarising.org
• Mary Lynn Manns
• manns_at_unca.edu
• www.cs.unca.edu/manns

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What is a retrospective?

• A time to reflect on and improve our practices.
• We have to test our knowledge constantlyusing
  practices like retrospectives. These should be
  done after each iterative cycle rather than
  waiting until the end of the project. The quality
  of learning derived from this practice shows an
  organizations true commitment to learning, and
  therefore, a key to its adaptability. Jim
  Highsmith
• Retrospective rituals are more than a review of
  the past. They also provide a chance to look
  forward, to plot the next project, and to plan
  explicitly what will be approached differently
  next time. Norm Kerth

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Project Retrospectives

• A retrospective is an opportunity for the
  participants to learn how to improve. The focus
  is on learningnot fault-finding.
• Norm Kerth

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Why are retrospectives important?

• We dont just want to complete a project we want
  to learn about completing projects while
  completing projects. Dave Parnas
• Learning and development do not necessarily occur
  as a result of the experience itself but as a
  result of reflection explicitly designed to
  foster learning and development. B. Jacoby
• For many of the team members, this will be the
  first time they consciously think about the
  processes they use. Norm Kerth

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Why a retrospective? To look at the past

• Project planning and control involves two kinds
  of skills looking backward to understand the
  past and looking forward to predict the future.
  We want to believe that learning from experience
  is automatic, but it requires profound skills.
  Experience provides data, not knowledge.

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Why a retrospective? To plan the future

• The most positive message we consistently get is
  that people want to improve themselves but
  usually they dont know what to work on. When
  they get good feedback on specific goals, that
  releases the natural internal inclination to
  improve.
• James Fallows

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Why a retrospective?To reach closure

• Research shows that when organizations go through
  changes, people have feelings and thoughts but no
  place to express them in the normal course of
  business. Thus, their experience is carried
  forward as a heaviness that slows them down and
  keeps them from moving into the new setting with
  enthusiasm.
• Barbara Waugh

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Why a retrospective?To create a community

• wisdom comes from our ability to understand the
  relationship between an individuals work and
  that of the entire team. I have seen whole-team
  reflection explain, discover, and teach so much.
  I believe that there is no better way to improve
  a teams performance and quality.
• Norm Kerth

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Retrospective Examples

• Robins titmice
• The buffalo hunt
• Softball
• Post-Fire Critiques
• www.chiefmontagna.com/Articles/post20fire20cri
  tique.htm
• Military After Action Reviews, Navy Lessons
  Learned, Coast Guard Uniform Lessons Learned
• Experience reports

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What a retrospective isnt

• Not a postmortem (sometimes it is!)
• Do at regular intervals
• Not a drudgery
• Techniques are fun (sometimes it isnt fun)
• Not done in secret
• Can include different affinity groups
• Not a whine session
• Emphasis is on being constructive
• Not a witch hunt
• Participants speak from I/we point of view

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Kerths Prime Directive

• Regardless of what we discover, we must
  understand and truly believe that everyone did
  the best job he or she could, given what was
  known at the time, his or her skills and
  abilities, the resources available, and the
  situation at hand.

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Types of Retrospectives

• End of project
• Interim
• Work chunk
• Heartbeat
• Custom response to a surprise

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What You Need

• Team members
• Location, location, location
• Facilitator external or internal (see
  Facilitation Resources slide)
• Supplies, such as
• Flipcharts
• Colored cards, pens
• Tape or thumbtacks

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What happensBefore

• Request
• event data
• effort data
• artifacts
• Talk with management
• Survey key players

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What happensDuring

• Readying
• Examples Create Safety, Im Too Busy
• Look at the past
• Examples Artifacts Contest, Timeline
• Prepare for the future
• Examples Making the Magic Happen, Change the
  Paper

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What happensAfter

• Retrospective reports
• What worked well that we dont want to forget?
• What should we do differently?
• What still puzzles us?
• Patterns
• Action plans

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How is knowledge shared?

• Web postings
• Email
• Posters
• Team meetings, staff meetings, tech forums

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How to sell retrospectivesin your organization

• The purpose of a retrospective is learning
• to avoid recurring mistakes
• to identify and share successful practices
• to prepare for the next iteration and future
  projects
• Everyone says they want to learn, but so few take
  the time to do so.

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Next Steps

• Get Norm Kerths book
• Read it!
• Sign up for the retrospectives Yahoo group
• retrospectives-subscribe_at_yahoogroups.com
• Sell the retrospective idea in your organization
  www.cs.unca.edu/manns/intropatterns.html

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Project Retrospectivesa final thoughtfrom Norm
Kerth (and Edward Bear)

• we bump our heads in project after project, day
  after day. If we would only take a moment to
  stop and think of alternative ways to proceed,
  Im sure we could find better ways to do our
  work. Norm Kerth

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Facilitation resources

• International Association of Facilitators -
  certification program http//www.iaf-world.org/
• ASTD - American Society for Training and
  Development - local chapters http//www.astd.org/i
  ndex_NS6.html
• ISPI - International Society for Performance
  Improvement - certification, local chapters
  http//www.ispi.org/
• NASAGA - North American Simulation and Gaming
  Association http//www.nasaga.org/
• Workshops by Thiagi - Freebies http//thiagi.com/
• Roger Schwartz, The Skilled Facilitator
• Sam Kaner et al, Facilitators Guide to
  Participatory Decision Making
• Ingrid Bens, Facilitate with Ease!  Josey-Bass
  Inc., 2000.
• R. Brian Stanfield, ed., The Art of Focused
  Conversation. ICA Canada, 1977.
• R. Brian Stanfield, ed., The Workshop Book. ICA
  Canada, 2002.
• Training and development Yahoo group
  http//groups.yahoo.com/group/trdev/