How to hold an effective sprint retrospective in 5 steps
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How to hold an effective sprint retrospective in 5 steps
Elaine Keep
8 November 2024
5 min read
Elaine Keep
8 November 2024
5 min read
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What is a sprint retrospective?
What is the purpose of a sprint retrospective?
How to hold a sprint retrospective
Without the right approach, sprint retrospectives can feel like just another meeting. Follow our five-step guide to learn how to do them right.
Struggling to get value out of your scrum team’s sprint retrospectives? You’re not alone. But with the right approach, a sprint retrospective can be a powerful tool for team growth.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to run retrospectives that truly make a difference. Let’s get started.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to run retrospectives that truly make a difference. Let’s get started.
What is a sprint retrospective?
A sprint retrospective is a meeting held with the development team after each sprint to reflect on the process, identify what worked well, and uncover areas for improvement before moving forward. It's an essential practice for continuous improvement in agile workflows.
As you’ll know from our article What is Scrum?, each development process has many different parts, but the sprint retrospective is one you should never skip.
As you’ll know from our article What is Scrum?, each development process has many different parts, but the sprint retrospective is one you should never skip.
What is the purpose of a sprint retrospective?
A sprint retrospective is a short, focused meeting where development teams review their sprints. In it, they can analyse what happened and make improvements.
A well-run retrospective creates alignment within the team and documents learnings so teams can work better together and become more agile in facing future challenges. These meetings also help foster an open culture of communication and adaptability.
A well-run retrospective creates alignment within the team and documents learnings so teams can work better together and become more agile in facing future challenges. These meetings also help foster an open culture of communication and adaptability.
How to hold a sprint retrospective
Holding a sprint retrospective after each sprint is a must. You can reflect on what went well, what didn’t, and make actionable improvements for the next sprint. Follow our five-step guide to make yours truly effective:
Tip: Save the content of your sprint retrospective using a template such as the Confluence Retrospective Template.
Tip: Save the content of your sprint retrospective using a template such as the Confluence Retrospective Template.
1. Invite the team
Invite the scrum master, the product owner, and the development team (those involved in designing, developing, and testing the product). Other stakeholders will typically attend a sprint review meeting rather than this retrospective. Add the team to your Sprint Retrospective Template.
2. Discuss the sprint
Have your Sprint Retrospective Template on hand to move the conversation forward and capture valuable insights as you go.
The best reason to use a template in a sprint retrospective is that every angle is discussed. Rather than missing points or coming away feeling like the meeting was just negative or just positive, you get prompts, such as a multi-tabbed column layout.
The best reason to use a template in a sprint retrospective is that every angle is discussed. Rather than missing points or coming away feeling like the meeting was just negative or just positive, you get prompts, such as a multi-tabbed column layout.
3. Ask the team what went well and what didn’t go well, and critically, add tangible action points
Action points should have a summary, responsibility to a team member or multiple members, and a deadline. Examples of actions could be holding more meetings with team members, training sessions, or formalised handover sessions.
4. What to discuss (and what not to!)
It’s easy for a conversation to focus on the features of a new release, but staying on track is essential. The sprint retrospective should concentrate on the last sprint and the team, so ensure the conversation focuses on the processes and practice rather than the outcomes.
Topics such as ‘Did the product meet the stakeholders' expectations?’ or ‘What feedback did we receive from stakeholders during the sprint?’ shouldn’t be covered in a sprint retrospective. Instead, cover topics related to how the work was done.
Example questions for your sprint retrospective:
Topics such as ‘Did the product meet the stakeholders' expectations?’ or ‘What feedback did we receive from stakeholders during the sprint?’ shouldn’t be covered in a sprint retrospective. Instead, cover topics related to how the work was done.
Example questions for your sprint retrospective:
- What were the best and worst ways of working?
- What were the best and worst tools and methodologies used?
- Discuss why specific problems arose and how they can be avoided in the future.
- How were issues resolved (or why weren’t they?)
- What was learned?
- Were there any blockers that slowed our progress?
- What could we have done differently to improve the outcome?
- How effectively did we communicate as a team?
- Did we manage our time and resources well?
- What can we improve for the next sprint?
- What will we commit to doing in the next sprint?
- Should we make changes to technical approaches?
- Do we need adjustments to workload distribution?
5. Close the retrospective
Summarise the key takeaways, known as ‘closing remarks,’ and add these to your Sprint Retrospective Template with the date. Something like, “We’ve made progress, and some bottlenecks around timing and holidays have been identified. As such, we’ll focus on more flexible working hours next month.”
Add the date of the next retrospective meeting. This can be helpful to reflect on and works as a quick summary.
You can also go back to ensure suggestions from a sprint retrospective are added to the sprint backlog and drawn down in subsequent sprints.
Add the date of the next retrospective meeting. This can be helpful to reflect on and works as a quick summary.
You can also go back to ensure suggestions from a sprint retrospective are added to the sprint backlog and drawn down in subsequent sprints.
Use Confluence? Get started with the perfect template
Are you excited about sprint retrospectives and the outcomes you'll get with a more formal approach? Get started, but don't go it alone! Use our structured Confluence Retrospective Template, the ideal sidekick for your meetings.
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Written by
Elaine Keep
Content Writer
Elaine has established herself as a respected authority in the HR industry and uses her experience gained as the head of marketing in the employee rewards and recognition software sector to inform her reporting.
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