Tips for Sprint Retrospective Meetings

Hi, guys! Just want to share some tips for Scrum Master performing the Sprint Retrospective )

• Be prepared. The Retrospective is one of the most important events in Scrum. If you don’t do it at all or don’t do it efficiently, you are depriving your team of voice. Create a facilitation plan for each Retrospective and make sure your team completes each step.
• Explain the Vegas Rule to your Team: “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Whatever is said in the meeting must be kept private among the participants and should never be repeated to others. There is no exception to this rule. It encourages trust and honest feedback, and the Team needs to be sure they won’t be judged. A Retrospective is a safe place for everyone.
• Make someone responsible for each action item. Without assigning responsibility, it’s likely that everyone will assume that someone else will handle it, and your action items will never actually get implemented.
• Don’t forget to review action items from previous Retrospectives to see whether they were solved or not. Autonomy and accountability hand in hand.
• If your team says they don’t need Retrospectives because they have nothing to improve, remember that perfection has no bounds.