The Art of Agile Development, 2nd Edition

Retrospectives

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Whole Team

We continually improve our work habits.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Every Agile team is different. The team members are different, the stakeholders are different, and what the team needs to do is different. That means every team’s process needs to be different, too.

Although it’s usually best to learn Agile by starting with an off-the-shelf process, such as the one in this book, that’s the beginning, not the end. There are always ways to make your team’s process work better, and when your situation changes, your process needs to change with it.

Agile teams constantly look for opportunities to improve their process, work habits, relationships, and environment. Anything that will make their work better is open for consideration.

Organizations can put constraints around their teams’ processes, but they should never expect every team to have the exact same process. The more teams can customize their process to their specific needs, the more effective they’ll be.

Your team should constantly update and improve your development process. Retrospectives are a great way to do so.

Types of Retrospectives

The most common retrospective, the heartbeat retrospective, occurs on a regular cadence. (It’s also known as an iteration retrospective.) For teams using iterations, it occurs at the end of every iteration. For teams using continuous flow, it occurs at a preset time every week or two.

In addition to heartbeat retrospectives, you can also conduct longer, ...