Cup of Inspiration

Today, March 25^th, is World Retrospective Day. If you are a member of a scrum team, or you make updates to a Kanban board as part of your work week, you are probably quite familiar with a retrospective meeting.

If an organization has incorporated agile methodology into their way of working, agile teams will hold a retrospective meeting at the end of an iteration to reflect on how the previous iteration went. What went right and should be remembered for future iterations? What did not go well, so the team can improve next time?

A retrospective meeting is not a time to point fingers and accuse others of any mishaps. It is a time set aside for a team to come together and discuss how they can continue to follow best practices in their future work. Making time for this meeting is essential for the team to continue improving their efficiency in future iterations.

In our fast-paced world, it is quite easy to not stop and reflect on how we are doing. We may just keep going, repeating the same mistakes, continuing with the same inefficient processes, thinking we do not have time to do anything differently. To improve, it is important to stop and look at current conditions at prescribed times. This can be taking a few minutes every Friday afternoon to reflect on the past week. At the end of the month, reviewing how the past month went. Once a quarter, taking a deeper look to see if you are still on track.

The agile method will look different for each organization, and it is not limited to the world of IT. Regularly reviewing progress and being willing to make changes as needed is essential for any organization. Today, take a moment to reflect on your progress. However, also look at how often you make the time for those reviews. Schedule time on your calendar for a retrospective meeting with your team.