Agile Retrospectives

5.1 Activity: Timeline

Use this to gather data in a longer iteration, release, or project retrospective.

Purpose

Stimulate memories of what happened during the increment of work. Create a picture of the work from many perspectives. Examine assumptions about who did what when. See patterns or when energy levels changed. Use this for “just the facts” or facts and feelings.

Time Needed

Thirty to ninety minutes, depending on the size of the group and the length of the increment of work.

Description

Group members write cards to represent memorable, personally meaningful, or otherwise significant events during the iteration, release, or project and then post them in (roughly) chronological order. The retrospective leader supports the team to discuss the events to understand facts and feelings during the iteration, release, or project.

Steps

1. Set up the activity by saying “We’ll fill in a timeline to create a fuller picture of this iteration/release/project. We want to see it from many perspectives.”

2. Divide the team into small groups, with no more than five in a group. Keep people who worked closely with each other together (affinity groups). It’s better to have two small groups representing one affinity than one big group.

   Hand out markers and index cards or sticky notes.

   Make sure each person has a marker. Although it sounds school-marmish, you do need to remind people to write legibly, so people can read the cards.

3. Describe the process.

   Ask people to think back ...