On Friday, 29 May 2015 at the XPConf 2015 on Finland, Helsinki
Paulo Caroli (Thoughtworks) and Taina Caetano (Thoughtworks). Fun Retrospectives: Activities and ideas for making agile retrospectives more engaging (Industry & Practice, 3 hours)
Abstract: In order to turn a group of people into an effective team, each individual needs to adjust their own actions, habits and work preferences, prioritizing the group’s common goal. That doesn’t happen overnight. It is a journey of reflection and self-discovery. In software projects, retrospectives are a tool to get the team together and provide the space necessary for this reflection, and they can achieve much more.
In this session, we will present a set of activities that can be used for different contexts and groups of people. We will talk briefly about the structure of an effective retrospective, followed by hands-on activities that will cover different scenarios:
• A recently formed group of people needs to understand each other and set ground rules for an effective workplace;
• A team has been running retrospectives regularly for a while, but feels like they need a change in order to keep the participants engaged;
• A project is about to end, and the team wants to understand their successes and mistakes;
• A new project is about to start, and the team needs to foresee problems and uncover risks that might happen;
• And more!
You will take part on performing activities and exercises that have been proven to improve retrospectives’ execution and results. This session’s dynamics have been designed to provide you with hands-on facilitation, group discussion and experience sharing. Each activity will be followed by a group discussion where participants will be invited to share their experience and debate how they can apply their learning in the workplace.
