Retrospective

The retrospective is an activity that is performed at the end of every sprint. The information is usually recorded on sticky notes or recorded in software. A common retrospective approach is called a “starfish.” The starfish retrospective collects the following information:

  • Start
  • Stop
  • Keep
  • More
  • Less

The intent of a retrospective is to improve the performance of the team and make them more efficient in each subsequent sprint.

Tailoring tips

Consider the following tips to help tailor the retrospective to meet your needs:

  • Instead of a starfish approach you can use “FLAP,” which stands for Future Considerations, Lessons, Accomplishments, and Problems.
  • You can color code information to indicate a category, such as technical, process, people, environment, etc.

Alignment

The retrospective should be aligned and consistent with the following documents:

  • Lessons learned summary
  • Project closeout
Document Element Description
Start Actions and behaviors that the team will begin to implement
Stop Actions or behaviors that the team will cease doing
Keep Practices that the team should continue with
More Practices that were not done consistently that should be done more often
Less Practices that were done too much or that should be reduced