Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great 1st Edition

by Esther Derby (Author), Diana Larsen (Author), Ken Schwaber (Foreword)

343 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0977616640

ISBN-10: 0977616649

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See how to mine the experience of your software development team continually throughout the life of the project. The tools and recipes in this book will help you uncover and solve hidden (and not-so-hidden) problems with your technology, your methodology, and those difficult "people" issues on your team.

Project retrospectives help teams examine what went right and what went wrong on a project. But traditionally, retrospectives (also known as "post-mortems") are only helpful at the end of the project--too late to help. You need agile retrospectives that are iterative and incremental. You need to accurately find and fix problems to help the team today.

Now, Derby and Larsen show you the tools, tricks, and tips you need to fix the problems you face on a software development project on an on-going basis. You'll see how to architect retrospectives in general, how to design them specifically for your team and organization, how to run them effectively, how to make the needed changes, and how to scale these techniques up. You'll learn how to deal with problems, and implement solutions effectively throughout the project--not just at the end.

With regular tune-ups, your team will hum like a precise, world-class orchestra.

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From the Publisher


	Agile Coaching	Agile Retrospectives	The Agile Samurai	Create Your Successful Agile Project
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Editorial Reviews

Review

""Two of the software industry's leading facilitators have taken their many years of retrospective experience and distilled them into an approachable reference for agile team leaders. For all of the self-made facilitators out there who have been winging it, this book will provide a solid foundation to improve the effectiveness of your iteration, release, and project retrospectives.""
--Dave Hoover, Lead Consultant, Agile Practices Obtiva Corp.

""Esther Derby and Diana Larsen have written the definitive book on agile retrospectives. You don't have to be an agile team to take advantage of their book; you only have to want to improve. Follow their advice and your teams will be more successful."" --Johanna Rothman, Author, speaker and consultant, Rothman Consulting Group, Inc.

Two of the software industry's leading facilitators have taken their many years of retrospective experience and distilled them into an approachable reference for agile team leaders. For all of the self-made facilitators out there who have been winging it, this book will provide a solid foundation to improve the effectiveness of your iteration, release, and project retrospectives.--Dave Hoover Lead Consultant, Agile Practices Obtiva Corp.

Esther Derby and Diana Larsen have written the definitive book on agile retrospectives. You don't have to be an agile team to take advantage of their book; you only have to want to improve. Follow their advice and your teams will be more successful.--Johanna Rothman Author, speaker and consultant Rothman Consulting Group, Inc.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pragmatic Bookshelf; 1st edition (August 15, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 178 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0977616649
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0977616640
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.1 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 0.5 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #72,362 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8 in Management Information Systems
- #13 in Agile Project Management
- #40 in Software Design & Engineering

Customer Reviews:
343 ratings

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2 star		4%
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Wendy Kroy

Have zombies taken over your retrospective?

Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2017

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Have zombies taken over your retrospective? Maybe the Sprint teams seems more like hungry mastiffs that won’t stop barking? Perhaps you are wondering if ESVP is a misspelling of ESP? If you have answered yes to the above questions, this is the retrospective book for you!

I’m a Scrum Master. I have encountered all sorts of outcomes, outbursts and out-of-this-world scenarios in retrospectives. This book was a lifesaver when I needed more ideas how to engage my Sprint teams. Every chapter has a take away. For example, in the very first chapter, a retrospective is described, start to finish, with activities included, and closes with a make-believe but real-world outcome. The authors offer a prescribed structured format that keeps people engaged, focused and ontrack.

The chapter on “Setting the stage” is a great kick-off to a retrospective that keeps your Sprint team members from turning into the undead. The game “ESVP” is when the team members say whether they are “Explorers”, “Shoppers”, “Vacationers” or “Prisoners.” It can be really telling where the Sprint team is based on their answers.

The book also gives advice on dealing with dominating people and toxic people. Ever have someone just start barking at people in a retrospective? I have copied the authors’ exact phrasing when speaking to someone who will not lower their voice. There are more great “go-to-phrases” when you are at a loss for words or don’t know how to respond to an unfamiliar situation.

The only thing I would add to this book is a chapter on dealing with remote teams. How do you keep people awake with the sound of your voice when they are an ocean away? Use real-time tools like google draw/google forms to re-create these games. It’s not rocket science to build a fishbone diagram online. I have discovered that any interaction with remote tools, even just voting “thumbs up”, makes a huge difference in the engagement of a remote team. And, can keep team members from impersonating the walking dead.

6 people found this helpful

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Scott J Pearson

Helpful frameworks for discussion among computer programmers about their art and science

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2019

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Techniques called “agile” comprise a more iterative approach to developing software. In many ways, it treats software as an open text instead of a fixed product. Agile development is used in most leading software shops around the world. This book treats a specific element of agile development – the retrospective. After each iteration or release, the team is gathered to discuss the last period of time and to seek improvement for the next time.

This approach is immensely helpful. It not only allows everyone to contribute to the group dynamics of software development, but it also provides a progressive framework so that knowledge is not lost. Software development is an especially quirky and peculiar area of life that is-like-but-is-not-like so many other disciplines (e.g., management, business, manufacturing, mathematics, arts, etc.). It is nice to have a book dedicated to this topic.

This book provides examples of exercises to perform with the team. For example, a timeline of the project might be charted to facilitate what happened in the last release. Or a matrix can be charted to share different insights about the last iteration. These exercises comprise the heart and the value of the book.

This book recommends performing an eight-hour retrospective after each release or after each iteration. I frankly could not imagine slowing down this frequently or for this long. Perhaps a one-hour focused retrospective (with one or two exercises) might be more helpful. Then again, I work with smaller teams that are continually having conversations such as these amongst themselves.

Overall, this book provides exercises that are helpful to draw out conversation among all those involved in software development. I’ll use it as a references as I lead conversations about software.

One person found this helpful

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Andy Burns

Running Retrospectives Field Guide

Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2012

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Reviewing this book now in the context of the 11 books the Project Management Institute (PMI) originally recommended to read to prepare for the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) exam. Of that 4,500 page reading list this was refreshing, trite, accessible, and eminently useful to those practicing agile in the trenches. Having road tested the recommended techniques I assure, this book is the real deal. This book is less about grand theories than about common sense practices to get teams to inspect and adapt their work on a periodic basis without going stale over longer durations.
That is not to say that there are not some grand theories within.
Consider this book and essential field guide for those practicing Agile Project Management. Of the 11 on the PMI list this book is clearly a must buy!

12 people found this helpful

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FcastilloI

Good handbook and easy reading

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2020

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This book has a lot activities to manage a retrospective meeting in software development, but I think some of techniques are not only effective in agile projects, you can use some of them in team management to give and receive feedback. Sadly the book has few examples about retrospective meetings and I expected to know more about how to manage different situations than what activities I should use.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

K Brewer

Not as comprehensive as it should be

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 5, 2018

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Although the first few chapters are helpful, the sections on retrospective activities are shambolic in the way they're written. Some of them are difficult to understand and I think better proof reading might have helped. I expected more in the way of how to manage retrospectives for different team dynamics, eg new teams, mature teams, problem teams etc. I don't think the book is worth the price.

3 people found this helpful

kmistry

Great book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 22, 2018

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An excellent overview of retrospectives and their purpose. Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended.

Dave

Good for beginners and mid-experience practitioners alike.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2016

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Relatively decent book in the agile space.

A lot of variants can be found on google/linkedin groups (if you join the right ones) and so on, but this helps to clarify some of the finer details and theory.

One person found this helpful

R. Nuttall

Lots of ideas to help with improving your Scrum process. A must for keep Retrospectives fresh and relevant.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 20, 2016

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Lots of great ideas for running Retrospectives, keeping them fresh and avoiding repetition, with suggestions for different ways to tease out issues the team is having with Scrum and to improve them.

D K DAVIDSON

Make Your Retrospectives ZING!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 9, 2013

Verified Purchase

As a Scrum Trainer and Contract Scrum Master, I regularly look for new ways to enliven Scrum Retrospectives. This book is my start point. It not only contains some fantastic ideas, it sets my mind free to think of alternatives that I can use.

Keeping Sprint Retrospectives engaging and useful is pivotal to helping a Scrum Team to continuously improve. This book will help you do that.

2 people found this helpful

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