The Power of Agile Mindset in Retrospectives
Unlocking Continuous Improvement and Team Empowerment
In the realm of Agile methodologies, retrospectives hold a special and pivotal role. They serve as the crucible in which teams convene to examine their past performances, unearth underlying issues, and set a course for improvement. However, for certain teams, the act of opening up and engaging in these retrospectives can be an intimidating endeavor.
What if there were a means to dismantle barriers, foster candid communication, and boost team morale? Prepare for an exhilarating journey as we explore our team’s experiences in this article. We’ll unveil the dynamic process of identifying and overcoming obstacles, fueling our team’s performance.
Idea Spark 💡
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.” — 12th principle of the Agile Manifesto.
Even though our Scrum team had productive Sprint Retrospectives in the past, we were aware of certain gray areas that required improvement. These issues were not repetitive, causing them to linger within the system. Over time, the team had grown accustomed to living with these issues, choosing to ignore them, and never finding it necessary to discuss them during the Sprint Retrospective. Therefore, I decided to introduce the Agile Mindset quiz as a focal point for an upcoming Retrospective session.
Breaking Down Barriers
The introduction of the Agile Mindset quiz provided a structured framework for addressing the issues we had been aware of but hadn’t previously discussed in our Sprint Retrospectives. This adjustment facilitated a more comprehensive evaluation of our execution and our alignment with the Agile values. It allowed us to pinpoint specific areas in need of improvement and, most importantly, served as the catalyst for breaking down long-standing barriers within the team.
Customizing the Quiz to Fit Team’s Needs
We took the base template and updated a few items to ensure the questions were focused towards existing and legacy issues that the team faced in daily execution.
Intro -> Why, What & How
We spent the first 5 mins to understand the importance of this activity, the expected outcome, the activities and address any questions the team had.
Brainstorming
The next 10 minutes were reserved for everyone to review the existing Agile Mindset Quiz template, aiming to ensure that the questions comprehensively covered all categories and allowed us to uncover potential issues effectively. We encouraged the team to suggest any necessary additions or modifications using sticky notes to optimize this activity for the team’s benefit.
Dot voting
The next 5 mins were spent to vote each items against a scale of 1–10 (1-Low confidence, 10-High Confidence)
Prioritizing and Action Items
The next 20 mins were reserved for the team to share each individual’s feedback on each item, where we are today, define the North Star (the primary measure of success for the product) and suggestions, improvements to get better.
Here are a few outcomes :
- Refinement Improvement: The team members shared their experiences of starting development without User Stories meeting the Definition of Ready (DoR). We also encountered edge-case scenarios that had not been considered, leading to rework, spillovers, and confusion, which impacted the team’s velocity. This, in turn, resulted in an increase in missed requirements being reported as defects and also delayed the completion of the feature.
Action: The team decided to have more focused refinement sessions, incorporating discussions about potential edge-cases, leveraging insights from Root Cause Analyses (RCAs) of previous production incidents, and utilizing documentation of legacy features for similar flows and make informed decisions. We also made it a point to document crucial details discussed with client in different channels of communication (emails, calls and messages). - Effective Planning: The team grappled with task spillovers due to the frequency of priority changes, assumptions, delays in dependency resolution and other external factors.
Action: The team decided to ensure every individual is having clear understanding of the tasks (regardless of who owns it), raise dependencies early, communicate effectively with client in all the communication channels, raise the risks (especially on the critical path), use the Engineering Schedule to plan more effectively (proactively looking at each others tasks and extending support when required). Finally enabling everyone to take effective decisioning when priority changes and come up with multiple solutions. - Decision Making & Communication: Even though team was happy about the current execution model with team leads supporting, every team member indicated willingness to participate in decision making calls and take up responsibility in a round robin manner.
Action: We decided to share a rotation based responsibilities to every team member and enable them in taking additional responsibilities and helping them take informed decisions while supporting when needed. - Equal work load distribution: Team indicated a need for balance in work load to avoid burnout and ensure everyone can support each other during execution
Action: We decided to have virtual coffee sessions to build a better rapport, share appreciations to each other every Sprint and volunteer to support everyone when needed. We also decided to avoid any bias towards owning work (based on expertise) but to give everyone equal opportunity to learn and contribute.
Feedback
We wrapped up a after a productive 5-minutes of gathering feedback from the team. During the meeting, we introduced a designated page that served as our central hub for tracking future action items. This designated page was essentially a shared document (hosted on Notion) where we listed and monitored all the tasks and responsibilities assigned during our discussions. The meeting concluded with a consensus, ensuring that everyone had a clear understanding of the next steps to be taken, all of which were tracked and managed through this designated page.
The Sequel — Journey from Challenges to Excellence
We scheduled a second session with an aim to revisit the areas of improvements and capture feedback from the team. Post-implementation of the action items identified in the first session, the team experienced remarkable transformations in various facets of their workflow.
- Refinement: Refinement sessions became more transparent, with open discussions leading to enhanced clarity and prompt resolution of dependencies.
- Planning: The team enjoyed the benefits of an improved Engineering Schedule, granting better visibility of tasks and mitigating delays.
- Quality: Product quality witnessed substantial enhancements, with a focus on averting platform disparities, prioritizing defects effectively, and addressing technical debt.
- Balanced Workload: Workload distribution became more equitable, fostering a heightened sense of teamwork and collaboration.
ENABLERS
In our journey toward continuous improvement, our team takes center stage, with their dedication, hard work, and discipline driving the positive changes we’ve seen. As part of our commitment to growth and service-oriented leadership, we also collected feedback on three enabling roles within our team: Engineering Manager, Product Owner and the Scrum Master. The team’s feedback is invaluable as we continue our journey toward growth and excellence. Here’s a summary of what our team had to say:
Engineering Manager
(An Engineering Manager drives team productivity, innovation, and project success, making a substantial impact on an organization’s engineering excellence):
- Provides architectural and strategic insights: EMs supports the team by offering valuable perspectives high-level guidance and recommendations for designing and planning complex systems or projects.
- Leading by Example: They lead by example and offer invaluable technical guidance to help us excel.
- Supportive 1-on-1s: Our EM actively engages in effective one-on-one sessions, providing a safe space to discuss issues and receive personal growth guidance.
- Motivating Growth: They inspire us to tackle challenges, motivating us to become better versions of ourselves.
- Organizing Fun Events: Our EM plays a pivotal role in creating a sense of togetherness by spearheading fun events that bond our team.
Product Owner:
- Timely Clarifications: Our PO is consistently available to provide us with the necessary clarifications promptly.
- Future Roadmap Support: They assist in shaping the future roadmap, aligning it with Sprint Goals to help us plan for upcoming milestones and identify dependencies in advance.
- Active Feedback: Our PO provides active feedback on completed work before Sprint reviews, ensuring we deliver a superior product that exceeds expectations.
Scrum Master:
- Organized Collaboration: Our SM keeps us organized by creating essential channels for collaboration and aiding us in time management.
- Clear Communication and Risk Management: They ensure clear communication, call out risks and dependencies, and protect us from external factors. They help us adapt plans to changing priorities and set expectations with our customers.
- Agile Coaching: Our SM actively listens and coaches us in Scrum/Agile methodologies, leading to continuous process improvements.
- Learning Platform: They’ve established an asynchronous channel for our team to seek guidance and learn about Scrum.
- Themed Retrospectives: Our team loves our theme-based retrospective meetings, which foster reflection and improvement.
Please note: It is of paramount importance to recognize that the roles of the Scrum Master, Engineering Manager, and Product Owner are that of enablers rather than sole drivers of team productivity, innovation, and project success. The entire team shares accountability for our effectiveness and project outcomes. These roles support the team while adhering to self-management principles and Scrum’s core responsibilities, emphasizing shared responsibility and collaboration. Scrum is fundamentally a team effort.
🏁 Conclusion 🏁
The pursuit of continuous improvement is illuminated through the lens of retrospectives. This journey underscores the transformative power of embracing an Agile mindset and customizing tools like the Agile mindset quiz to fit our team’s unique needs. With open dialogue, the establishment of clear action items, and the unwavering dedication of the entire team, we not only conquered communication barriers but also cultivated a culture of continuous improvement. The retrospective has transcended its role as a mere meeting; it has evolved into a catalyst for profound positive change. This evolution reaffirms the undeniable impact of the Agile mindset within the realm of Agile practices. It’s a testament to the team’s commitment to growth and excellence, and a reminder that in the ever-evolving landscape of teamwork, an Agile mindset is an invaluable compass guiding us towards success.
End Note
Learning often comes from embracing others’ wisdom
In this article, we extend our sincere gratitude to David Theil for providing an outstanding article on the Agile Mindset. This article not only sparked enlightening discussions but also empowered our team to engage in open dialogues, leading to significant improvements. It has allowed us to recognize the true value and transformative power of retrospectives in our Agile journey.
