What is the Sprint Retrospective?
Why do you need to have a Sprint Retrospective? Who should attend? What’s the point of it? What is a Sprint Retrospective? In this vlog, I’ll explain the Scrum Guide’s definition of the Sprint Retrospective and what it means for you in practical terms.
The purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to plan ways to increase quality and effectiveness. The Scrum Team inspects how the last Sprint went with regard to individuals, interaction, process, tools, and their Definition of Done. Don’t forget to review that!
Often, the inspected elements vary with the domain of the work. Assumptions that led them astray are identified and their origins are explored. The Scrum Team discusses what went well during the Sprint, but it also looks for what didn’t go so well and what problems got solved and which ones didn’t.
The Scrum Team identifies the most helpful changes to improve effectiveness. The most impactful improvements are addressed as soon as possible; they may even be added to the Sprint Backlog for the next Sprint.
The Sprint Retrospective concludes the Sprint. It’s time-boxed to a maximum of three hours for a one-month Sprint. For shorter Sprints, the event is usually shorter. So, that’s it for the Sprint Retrospective.
Again, there’s not a lot written in the Scrum Guide about this. How you facilitate them, that’s up to you. It doesn’t necessarily have to be your Scrum Master; it just has to be facilitated. The idea is to come up with something to improve. Remember to look at your Definition of Done, and the entire Scrum Team attends this event.
If all of this information about Scrum is interesting to you and you’d like to learn more, please join us in one of our Applying Professional Scrum courses, Professional Scrum Master courses, or Professional Product Owner courses. If you have any other questions, feel free to contact us.
