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Retrospectives

In Agile Teams (Sprint Retrospective)

Retrospectives are one of the important ceremonies in agile teams. Happening at the end of each sprint, retros aim to flush out:

  • What went well and what is working for our team
  • What did not go well and needs improvements
  • What are the things we should do to fix/improve

There are many formats to do retros but at the end they all essentially try to answer same questions and provide insight in the same area mentioned above. Below are few of many formats for retro:

Went Well - To Improve - Action Items

This is the most common format for retros addressing 3 main areas.

KALM

  • Keep: what you need to keep – because it is working for your team
  • Add: things you need to add – because you realised it is missing from your processes
  • More: things you tried once or twice and realised you need more of it
  • Less: things you tried and realised it is not working for your team so you should do less

Start Stop Continue Retrospective

  • Start: items (tasks and process) that team should be working on but it is not
  • Stop: actions that are not working for the team hence should be stopped
  • Continue: things that being tried and seem to be effective for everyone (and the team) so should be continued in the same manner

There is a strong theme in process among all retro formats:

  • Gather data
  • Generate insight
  • Decide on what to do

Tool: FunRetro https://funretro.io/

As an Individual

Your individual retrospective is different to team (sprint retrospective) and it is very important to know the difference.

The aim of individual retro is for you to demonstrate your individual contribution to the project for assessment purposes. This is all about what you did individually – not your squad.

So why is it different to actual sprint retro? Let’s start by understanding portfolio-based assessment.

What is your portfolio?

A portfolio is a compilation of materials that exemplifies your beliefs, skills, qualifications, education, training and experiences. It provides insight into your personality and work ethic.

What does this mean for you in terms of assessment?

  • You are assessed individually based on the amount of work you put in. So;
  • You could be in a very good team and end up getting very bad mark if you do nothing and think your mark is going to be the same as team (thinking this is group assignment) OR;
  • You could be in an average team and get high mark if you contributed well and built a strong portfolio.

What does this mean for your career?

  • Your individual portfolio should clearly demonstrate evidence of your progress, skills and professional behaviours. Your final year industry capstone portfolio is your greatest asset you will have when you apply for jobs in your chosen area of study.
  • In 2020, simply having a qualification is not enough, it comes down to what you can demonstrate and evidence that you can do.
  • A potential employer is interested in your technical capabilities, and how you would “fit” into their team. This is why your portfolio is required to demonstrate both hard technical and soft behavioural and professional skills.

What are we looking for?

Detailed evidence of your contribution in each iteration

You should cover in your submission?

  • Your role in the project and what you did to ensure you had an impactful contribution
  • Time you spent on the project in this iteration, evidenced in your Worklog
  • Your technical contribution (including research and upskilling) demonstrated with links or evidence of the artefacts you created or contributed to
  • Your plan (and tasks) you have for next iteration

Worklog

  • It goes without saying, that you wouldn’t work your part time job, and not put in a timesheet, so why would you work on a 12-week project and not submit your worklog?
  • Your Worklog is used by your assessors to match your Individual Retro, to your public statement of work within the Squad.
  • If your Retro and your Worklog aren’t matching up, and if you can’t prove the work you have completed, you will get questions from your assessors. Document Title