Create Your Successful Agile Project

Retrospectives Provide Valuable Data

When any team works for any period of time—even as short as a day—the team can examine its results (the work product) and its process (how the team worked). That’s the idea behind the agile retrospective. A retrospective is a look back at the team’s actions and output so the team can learn what to do next.

Too many agile teams shortchange their retrospectives. They stop doing them, the retrospectives become formulaic, or the team doesn’t change what it does.

How often should your team reflect? Here are some possibilities:

• Reflect at a one- or two-week cadence, regardless of whether the team uses iterations.

• Reflect every time the team releases to the customer. (If your team uses continuous delivery, that ...