Software teams experience what goes right and what goes wrong, what works and what doesn’t, during each and every iteration of each and every project. What happens to that hard-earned experience? In too many organizations, on too many projects, it dissipates as team members shift focus and move on. Through Retrospectives, teams systematically evaluate their own performance, explore their lessons learned, expand their capacity and capability, and choose how to improve the way they build and deliver products to your customers. For best results, smart teams and organizations convene Retrospectives iteratively throughout the project and again after delivery. After all, retrospectives are fundamental to Agile (see Manifesto principle #12) and have been a part of working Agile from the start.

Participants will join Diana and Esther on the Adventure of experiencing a short project, along with its demo retrospective. They will explore the retrospective territory by learning a framework that helps groups learn, think and decide together. Then they’ll face the challenge of designing a retrospective for a previously unknown team.

Along the way, they will acquire new processes and activities for beginning or revitalizing their own teams’ retrospectives. Retrospectives work best when they are done well right from the beginning.

The tutorial will transform table groups of 4-6 people into teams of explorers on this Adventure. Each table group will receive project materials and other supplies to complete its shared challenges.