Agile Retrospective

What Does Agile Retrospective Mean?

In Agile software development, a retrospective is a one-hour meeting held at the end of each sprint.

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One of the core principles of all Agile frameworks, including Scrum, is the need for transparency, clear communication and continuous process improvement.

The purpose of a retrospective is to improve processes and outcomes for the next sprint by sharing answers to these three questions:

  • What went well during the sprint?
  • What went wrong during the sprint?
  • What could the team do differently to improve the next sprint?

Techopedia Explains Agile Retrospective

Retrospectives are conducted in an structured way that allows team members to share their opinions freely in a positive way.

Whether the retrospective is conducted in person or virtually, the agenda typically includes the following steps:

  1. The facilitator shares three questions about the sprint — What went well? What didn't go well? What needs to be changed?
  2. The facilitator creates a sticky note (real or virtual) for each question and posts the questions on a wall, whiteboard or virtual display horizontally.
  3. Team members record their answers for each question and post them under the appropriate question.
  4. The facilitator leads a discussion about the answers and the team decides on an appropriate and reasonable course of action for improvement.
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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…