Agile Retrospectives

5.8 Activity: Like to Like

Use to gather data during an iteration, release, or project retrospective.

Purpose

Help team members recall their experiences during the iteration (release or project), and hear that others may have perceived it differently.

Time Needed

Thirty to forty minutes.

Description

Team members take turns judging which events or factors about their iteration are the best fits for quality cards. As the cards are evaluated, team members learn about each other’s perspective on the same events or conditions.

Steps

1. Ask each team member to write at least nine index cards for playing the Like to Like game: three or more cards with things to stop doing three or more cards with things to keep doing and three or more things to start doing. While team members are writing, shuffle the deck of colored “quality” cards and lay the pile face down on a table.

2. When the game cards are ready, invite the team to stand around the table. Choose one person to start as “judge.” The “judge” turns over a “quality” card from the pile and puts it face up on the table. All other team members look in their game cards for the one that most closely matches the “quality” card and place their cards face down. The last card down is disqualified and returns to its owner’s hand. This keeps the game moving.

3. The “judge” stirs the players’ cards, turns them over one at a time, and reads them. He or she chooses the card that makes the best match with the “quality” card. The author of that card ...