Agile Retrospectives

6.4 Activity: Fishbone

Use this activity to generate insights in a longer iteration, release, or project retrospective.

Purpose

Look past symptoms to identify root causes related to an issue. Look for reasons behind problems and breakdowns.

Time Needed

Thirty to sixty minutes.

Description

The team identifies factors that are causing or affecting a problem situation and then looks for the most likely causes. After they’ve identified the most likely causes, they look for ways they can make changes or influence those factors.

Steps

1. Draw a fishbone diagram (see Figure 14, ​Fishbone​) and write the problem or issue at the fish’s head. Include the five W’s—What, Who, When, Where, and Why. Label the “bones” of the fish with categories.

   Typical categories are as follows:

   • Methods, Machines, Materials, Staffing (which was formerly known as Manpower)

   • Place, Procedure, People, Policies

   • Surroundings, Suppliers, Systems, Skills

   You can use these in any combination, or the team can identify their own categories.

2. Brainstorm factors within each category. Prompt by asking “What are the [fill in a category name here] issues causing or affecting [fill in the problem here.]” Repeat this for each category. Write the issues along the bones, or have people write them on small sticky notes and stick them to the fishbone diagram.

3. Continue asking “Why is this happening?”

   Add more branches off the bones as needed.

   Stop when the causes are outside the team’s control ...