Keeping the Retrospective Alive Agile Manchester May 2018 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Keeping the Retrospective Alive

Agile Manchester

May 2018

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Who Am I?

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• Graduated in 2011 with a Masters in Mathematics

from University of Birmingham.

• Joined the T

echnology Leadership graduate scheme at T esco where I became part of their Agile T ransformation programme as an Agile Coach.

• April 2016, joined Expedia, within Hotels.com as an

Agile Lead, starting as acting Scrum Master for three teams, and have recently moved to focus on leading org wide agility.

• In my spare time I enjoy singing, cooking, long walks

with my dog and travelling the world!

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What is a retrospective?

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“At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly.”

Principle behind the Agile Manifesto

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Where does it all go wrong?

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It is always the same conversation… No magic spell can fix this mess, what’s the point? It’s so sad, people just argue all the time Retros are so boring! I just don’t like talking

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“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.”

The Lorax

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How do we make these more… Fun? Engaging? Valuable?

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General Rules

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• Set the scene
• Review previous commitments
• Gather Data
• One idea per post it note
• Generate Insights
• The team can ‘Mango’ if someone is talking for too long, or has gone off on a tangent
• Everyone participates

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General Rules

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• Set the scene
• Review previous commitments
• Gather Data
• One idea per post it note
• Generate Insights
• The team can ‘Mango’ if someone is talking for too long, or has gone off on a tangent
• Everyone participates
• Decide what to do
• Capture commitments and make them visible in your team area with clear ownership
• Close the retro

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“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men”

Willy Wonka

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Brain Energisers

Fun, short team building activities to get teams talking and engaged.

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Fruit Face

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• 1. Give everyone a piece of fruit with a

skin and a pen

• 2. Ask them to draw on a face,

representing how they are currently feeling

• 3. Compare the works of art and ask

people to give context to their emotions

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Marshmallow Challenge

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• 1. In 15mins build a freestanding

tower as tall as you can out of spaghetti

• 2. A marshmallow must be

placed on the top.

• 3. You have 1m of tape and 1m
• f string to help.

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Who Said?

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• 1. Write down recent quotes from your

team and keep a copy of who said it.

• 2. Read out the quote, and ask the team

to vote on ‘who said it’.

?

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“The past can hurt. But the way I see it you can either run from it or learn from it”

Rafiki

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Classic

Asking the same questions in a varied way!

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Football Retro

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• What has scored us a goal?
• Where did we concede penalties?
• What substitutions could we have made?

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Sunshine & Rain

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• One thing I think is sunny…
• One thing which feels like a dark cloud
• What impact does it have?
• How can we change the weather

forecast?

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Go For a Walk

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• Find a partner you don’t usually work with
• Grab pen and post it notes
• Go for a walk and discuss
• What was successful?
• What stopped us from succeeding?

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“We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy”

Albus Dumbedore

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Emotive

When there is tension in the team, an emotive retro will help the team understand how others are feeling, and create a sense of empathy

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Celebrity Faces

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1.Stick up photos around the room of a celebrities face in various expressions. 2.Add post-it notes, capturing how recent events have made them feel

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Happy Confused Surprised Sad Angry

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If I Were You

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• 1. Write everybody names on a post it

note, fold it up and put it in a bowl

• 2. Each team member picks out a name

3.Act and speak as if you are that person

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“You and I are a team. Nothing is more important than our friendship.”

Mike Wazowski

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New Members

When you have a change in team members and want to get to know one another

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Smarty Pants

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1.Place a large packet of smarties into a bowl 2.Ask someone in the team to pick a sweet out of the bowl (with their eyes closed!) and answer a question according to the colour 3.Try to get each person to answer every question!

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Smarty Pants Questions

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• Red – What has gone well this sprint?
• Orange – What hasn’t gone well this sprint?
• Yellow – What would you change about the team?
• Green – Where is your favourite holiday destination?
• Blue – What is your favourite film?
• Violet – If you could do any other job, what would it be?
• Pink – Tell us a fun fact!
• Brown – If you won the lottery what would you do first?

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People Mapping

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“Somewhere inside all

• f us is the power to

change the world”

Matilda Wormwood

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Expressive

Opportunity to get creative juices running

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Let’s Draw

• 1. Give everyone a piece of A3 paper, and put out pens (of various

colours) on the table. 2.Ask each of them to draw the last iteration

• How did they feel?
• What was achieved?
• What was a challenge?
• What did they wish happened?

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Twitter Retro

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• 1. Ask the team to write one ‘tweet’ per

post-it note and stick them on the wall. The tweet should be short and can contain @ or #.

• 2. The team can then review other peoples

tweets and add hearts, retweet symbol or comment.

• 3. Find the most popular tweets and

discuss them as a group.

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“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

Walt Disney

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Focussed

When there is a particular problem you are trying to solve

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Retros Against Humanity

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• 1. Print out the cards suited to your teams

current challenges!

• 2. Give each team member a pen and post-

it notes. Hold up a card and ask each to fill in the gap.

• 3. Go round the room and share ideas, take

it in turns to pick the ‘best’ answer and discuss.

Retros Against Humanity

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If only we had known about _______ sooner. ______ has been an absolute star this sprint. We would be so much better if we would just _________.

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The secret to a kick ass stand up is _________. ________ is more

• ffensive than a

cold, rainy, windy Monday morning. The secret to ruining a story is _________.

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Agile Self-Assessment

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Taking key agile principles, ask the team to rate themselves -

• Green: We are great at this
• Amber: We do this, but not very well
• Red: We don’t even attempt this

Discuss areas of improvement and update the chart, taking a photo each time. See how the team progresses, and feels

• wnership of their destiny!

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Agile Meetings

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• 1. On a whiteboard/large piece of paper, for

each meeting draw a horizontal scale or star ratings (1 waste of time, 5 very valuable)

• 2. Each team member adds a dot vote to the

scale, based on their rating for each of these principles.

• 3. The team discusses each meeting, starting

with the lowest score

• Why do we think it is low?
• How could it we be better?

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User Story Retro

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• 1. Ask the team to bring with them a story which

was really effective, and another which made life difficult!

• 2. In small groups, ask them to come up a list of
• Qualities a good story has
• Common mistakes made, or things missed
• 3. Use this to review your definition of ‘ready’ i.e.

for a story to be accepted.

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“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

Albert Einstein

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It is always the same conversation… Well let’s ask different questions?

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No magic spell can fix this mess, what’s the point? Focus on one problem, and solve it as a team!

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Retros are so boring! Well let’s make them more fun!

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It’s so sad, people just argue all the time No one can argue with how you feel!

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I just don’t like talking Well let’s express

• urselves in a

different way?

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Th They ey aren en’t t ev ever eryth ythin ing…

Innovation Team challenges and socials Space to collaborate

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Online Resources

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• https://plans-for-retrospectives.com
• https://spotifylabscom.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/retro-kit3.pdf
• http://www.funretrospectives.com/
• https://www.boxuk.com/our-work/agile-games

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What do you do?