End of the year themed retrospective
I really like retrospectives, for me it’s the most important of agile rituals. It’s not only for agile teams working with software development, any team can use it to get better on what they do.
A standard retrospective is a good way to start (i.e. what did we do well, what could we do better, ideas and actions) but trying some other formats can be a good way to get other perspectives and gain new insights. So, I thought I’d share one of my own formats that are on the theme of end of the year.
End of the year retrospective
This format is themed around Christmas and new year, and can be used as a summary for a whole year or just a specific period or project you’d like to learn more from. It can be used at any time during the year, but of course it fits best near the end of the year. It can be conducted either remotely/hybrid with the help of services such as Mural or Miro or physically in a conference room using sticky notes. My preferred way of conducting these kinds of events is to encourage all participants to write notes and put them on the board directly to give the other participants some inspiration on what to write.
The format consists of three categories:
- Gifts. What gifts of knowledge, insight, help or actual gifts did I receive from my colleagues during the time period being evaluated.
- Promises for the new year. What promises do I give myself or to my team for the future, or for the coming year.
- Fireworks. What important actions or events occurred during the period that you would like to highlight?
Further reading
To get more information on what a retrospectives is and how to conduct them you can read more at these links:
Jonas Carlsson
Agile Coach at Visiba Care
