Looking back at the Sprint and examining how your team can improve is an important part of Scrum. We do this in the Sprint Retrospective event.
The CAVU Team has assembled some retrospective resources to help you and your team work together to improve. A fun retrospective exercise is a great way to get your team looking at ways to improve. It also helps your team remember the positive things that happened during the Sprint.
We recommend trying different retrospective exercises to find what works best for you! Plus, a little variety can help inspire creativity during your Sprint Retrospective.
Have retrospective exercise you love but it’s not listed here? Share your thoughts with the CAVU community by commenting below.
Retrospective Libraries
| Name | Link | Description |
| Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great (Book) | https://www.amazon.com/Agile-Retrospectives-Making-Teams-Great/dp/0977616649 | A book by Ester Derby and Diana Larsen to improve your retrospectives |
| Agile Retrospectives Wiki | https://retrospectivewiki.org/index.php?title=Retrospective_Plans | A collection of detailed retrospective plans by Rob Bowley |
| Virtual Retro Templates by Chris Stone | https://www.thevirtualagilecoach.co.uk/retros | Over 100 freely accessible templates, from retrospectives to canvases by Chris Stone |
| Fun Retrospectives | https://www.funretrospectives.com/ | Activities and ideas for making agile retrospectives more engaging |
| Retromat | https://retromat.org/ | A retrospective blog with examples and templates |
| Gamestorming | https://gamestorming.com/ | A blog about games designed to help you get more innovative, creative results in your work |
Online Retro Tools
| Name | Link | Description |
| Retrium | https://www.retrium.com/ | Online tool for facilitating fun and interactive sprint retrospectives (Free Trial) |
| Easy Retro | https://easyretro.io/ | Online tool for doing sprint retrospectives and other collaborative exercises (Free Trial) |
| Go Retro | https://www.goretro.ai/ | Online suite of sprint management tools (Free and Premium Options) |
| Mind Tools | https://www.mindtools.com/ | An online toolkit with over 2,500 resources to help you develop your personal wellbeing and career skills |
Retrospective Examples
| Name | Link | Description |
| Start, Stop, Continue | https://miro.com/templates/start-stop-continue/ | A feedback model where team members identify actions they should start doing, stop doing, and continue doing for improvement. |
| Mad, Sad, Glad | https://miro.com/templates/mad-sad-glad-retrospective/ | An emotional gauge technique where team members share feelings (mad, sad, glad) about different aspects of the project to help surface hidden issues and generate empathy. |
| Sailboat | https://miro.com/templates/sailboat-retrospective/ | A retrospective technique that uses the metaphor of a sailboat (project) facing wind (helping factors), anchors (hindrances), and risks (rocks) to understand project dynamics better. |
| Timeline | https://miro.com/templates/timeline/ | A chronological representation of the project’s events to help the team identify key moments, turning points, highs, and lows. |
| Speed Car | https://www.funretrospectives.com/speed-car/ | The engine represents what drives it forward, brakes represent what slows it down, and the goal is the project’s desired destination. |
| 4 L’s – Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for | https://conceptboard.com/blog/4ls-retrospective-technique-free-template/ | A reflection technique where team members express what they liked, learned, found lacking, and longed for in a project or sprint. |
| Starfish | https://conceptboard.com/blog/starfish-retrospective-free-template/ | Keep Doing, Less Of, More Of, Stop Doing, and Start Doing. |
| TRIZ | https://www.mindtools.com/amtcc5f/triz | An acronym for the Russian “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving”, used to identify and eliminate self-imposed constraints and foster innovative thinking. |
| Kudos Wall | https://management30.com/practice/kudo-cards/ | A space for team members to recognize and appreciate each other’s efforts and accomplishments, thereby fostering a positive working environment. |
| Circles and Soup | https://retromat.org/en/?id=29 | A technique to identify elements of a project that are within the team’s control (soup) and outside their control (circles). |
| Conversation Café | https://conversationcafe.org/ | An open conversation format that fosters respectful public dialogue, active listening, and collective intelligence to address complex issues. |
| Happiness Index | https://www.scruminc.com/retrospectives/ | A method of gauging team satisfaction or emotional health over time by regularly rating happiness on a scale and discussing the reasons behind the scores. |
| Constellation | https://anagilemind.net/2019/02/20/team-building-icebreaker-constellation-exercise/ | An interactive group activity that visualizes team members’ alignment with statements or questions by their physical position in a room. |
| Futurespecitives | https://www.funretrospectives.com/category/futurespective/ | A forward-looking retrospective approach that starts with envisioning a successful future and then works backward to identify steps to reach that goal. |
Facilitation Techniques
| Name | Link | Description |
| Lean Coffee | http://leancoffee.org/ | A structured, but agenda-less meeting style that allows participants to democratically build an agenda and begin discussing topics in an efficient manner. |
| Dot Voting | https://miro.com/templates/dot-voting/ | A prioritization method where each team member gets a set number of dots (votes) to assign to various issues or ideas, thus highlighting what matters most. |
| Fist to Five | What is Fist to Five? | A check-in technique for ensuring the team has consensus on a given topic. |
| Check-in Questions | 40+ Check-In Questions for Meetings | It can be helpful to begin your Retrospective with a Check-in question to get your team thinking about their reflections on the latest Sprint. |
| Agenda | How to Write a Successful Meeting Agenda | Every meeting should have an agenda. Keeping your agenda front and center can help teach the team to run their events even when the Scrum Master isn’t available. |
| Think, Write, Pair, Share | Think, Write, Pair, Share Template.pdf (nasa.gov) | Giving people time to consider their thoughts and then discuss can generate terrific results even in a large group. |
