agile-retrospective

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name: agile-retrospective description: When facilitating sprint retrospectives or team improvement sessions. version: 1.0.0 tokens: ~300 confidence: high sources:

• https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/retrospective
• https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-a-sprint-retrospective last_validated: 2025-01-10 next_review: 2025-01-24 tags: [agile, retrospective, scrum, planning]

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When to Use

When facilitating sprint retrospectives or team improvement sessions.

Patterns

Start/Stop/Continue Format

Copy## Sprint X Retrospective

### 🟢 START (new practices)
- [What should we begin doing?]
- [New tools, processes, habits]

### 🔴 STOP (remove friction)
- [What should we stop doing?]
- [What's not working?]

### 🟡 CONTINUE (keep doing)
- [What's working well?]
- [What should we keep?]

### 📋 Action Items
| Action | Owner | Due |
|--------|-------|-----|
| [specific action] | [name] | [date] |

4Ls Format (Alternative)

CopyLIKED:    What went well?
LEARNED:  What did we learn?
LACKED:   What was missing?
LONGED:   What do we wish for?

Facilitation Tips

Copy1. Timebox: 45-60 min max
2. Equal voice: everyone speaks
3. No blame: focus on process, not people
4. Action items: max 3, specific, owned
5. Follow-up: review last retro's actions first

Action Item Quality

Copy❌ "Improve communication"
✅ "Daily 10min sync at 9am, owner: @lead, starts Monday"

❌ "Write more tests"
✅ "Add integration tests for auth module, owner: @dev, by Sprint end"

Anti-Patterns

• No action items (talk shop only)
• Too many action items (>3 = none done)
• Blame individuals instead of process
• Skip reviewing last sprint's actions
• Manager dominates discussion

Verification Checklist

• All team members contributed
• Max 3 action items
• Each action has owner + date
• Previous actions reviewed
• Notes documented