Feedback and adaptation are central to Agile, and that applies to the team’s approach to Agile itself. Although you might start with an off-the-shelf Agile method, every team is expected to customize its method for itself. In this session, Aino Corry joins us to look at how retrospectives help teams reflect and improve.

Aino Corry is a teacher, a technical conference editor and retrospectives facilitator. She holds a masters degree and a Ph.D. in computer science. She has 12 years of experience with Patterns in Software Development, and 20 years of experience with agile processes in academia and industry. She also teaches how to teach Computer Science to teachers, and thus lives up to the name of her company; Metadeveloper. In her spare time, she runs and sings (but not at the same time). Aino is the author of the book Retrospective Antipatterns.

Reading:
📖 Improvement (introduction)
📖 Retrospectives
📖 Impediment Removal

🎙 Discussion prompts:

• Retrospectives are a powerful tool, but only if used correctly. What are some ways you’ve seen them go wrong?

• Retrospectives can get boring after a while. What can be done to keep them interesting?

• Teams often struggle with following through on retrospective ideas. How can teams do a better job at closing the retrospective feedback loop?

• Sometimes, the team’s biggest impediments are out of their direct control. What should teams do about impediments that are outside their direct control?

About the Book Club

From October 2021 to August 2022, I hosted a call-in talk show based on the second edition of The Art of Agile Development. The series used the book as a jumping-off point for wide-ranging discussions about Agile ideas and practices, and had a star-studded guest list.

For an archive of past sessions, visit the book club index. For more about the book, visit the Art of Agile Development home page.