Agile Performance Improvement: The New Synergy of Agile and Human Performance Technology

CHAPTER 8

Continuous Improvement Lore

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

—Principles Behind the Agile Manifesto

At the conclusion of each sprint, Scrum calls for the team to hold a retrospective meeting. It is the lynchpin of continuous improvement and responsiveness to change. By scheduling this event regularly, every one, two, or four weeks, depending on iteration length, the team finds focus on improving performance, much more often than in non-Agile practices, where reflection usually occurs only at the conclusion of a big project or at some other long interval.

The guidance and so-called rules for the retrospective are few.

• The meeting is for the team ...