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Project Portal
| See Also Guide Project |
| Activity: Conduct Retrospective
Project Manager
|  |  |  | Guide Iteration |  |
|  | Participating Roles Responsible: Project Manager Consult: Developer Tester Business Analyst
### Overview Feedback is an important part of any agile software development process. Since every development team and the problem that they face is unique, creating an environment that meets their needs is a key to maximizing productivity. When an iteration has ended, the retrospective allows the development team to discuss what was favorable and unfavorable about the way that they worked. A key to this process is to look for constructive ways to improve the process and adapt accordingly. A retrospective meeting is typically two hours long to solicit maximum input. However, if the team feels that everything is going smoothly, it may be shorter. The final iteration is completed with a project retrospective. # Entry Criteria When: At the end of each iteration. # Sub-Activities
1 | Setup Retrospective Meeting | Invite the team to the retrospective. The meeting should follow the end of the iteration and include the entire team. Retrospectives during the project should be relatively short but long enough to obtain meaningful feedback (two hours is usually allocated). The final retrospective (at the end of the project) can take longer and even last days for long projects. You may wish to schedule this last retrospective offsite to prevent interference of daily activities. Choose a facilitator for the retrospective. This should be an external person that everyone trusts to guard the personal safety of all the members of the team. The facilitator should create a retrospective plan or set of high level retrospective goals. These goals should reflect an understanding of the dynamics of the iteration that is to be looked back upon. The facilitator does not need to share this plan and can be flexible in changing it as the retrospective unfolds.
2 | Hold Iteration Retrospective Meeting | Set the ground rules regarding interruptions and personal engagement. Create a two column list of "+"s and "-"s from the iteration. The key question to ask in an iteration retrospective is "if you could do it again, what kinds of improvements would you make?" Use the activities scheduled in the retrospective plan to draw out feedback. These activities may include a combination of evaluation and team building exercises. Capture each new idea. Be sure to maintain the environment of personal safety. From the ideas, work with the team to create solutions. Summarize the solutions in the retrospective feedback template. Save the template with the iteration name. Publish the document on the project portal.
3 | Incorporate Feedback into Next Iteration | Use the feedback to adjust plans for the following iterations where appropriate.
# Exit Criteria
| All opinions on how to improve the process have been heard and acknowledged.
| All agreed upon changes have been incorporated into the process for the next iteration.
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