Try A Festive Agile Retrospective!

Christmas is approaching and you're coming to the end of your sprint... why not capitalise on the season of goodwill and hold a festive themed agile retrospective!

In order to keep things nice and simple for you, I am going to use my favoured template to help lead and shape the discussion. For those who aren't familiar, I like to use the following from "Agile Retrospectives - Making Good Teams Great".

• Set The Scene
• Gather Data
• Generate Insights
• Decide What To Do
• Close Retrospective

I'd love to hear how you get on with this retrospective, how the team reacted and how it helped or hindered the discussion! Leave a comment with how it went!

Festive Retrospective!

You will need:

• Post it notes
• Whiteboard/flipchart
• Whiteboard/marker pens
• Planning poker cards

Highly recommended/optional:

• Festive playlist - load your phone with a selection of Christmas songs to help manage the time during activities. I like to limit activities to the length of "x" amount of songs. Personal favourite Christmas songs of mine are Merry Christmas Everyone by Shakin' Stevens and the Michael Buble Christmas album!
• Christmas treats - As mentioned in previous posts, the retrospective is cause for a celebration and a valuable chance to build the culture of the team. I always recommend bringing in sweets or chocolates. As it's Christmas, take advantage of the mince pies on offer in the supermarkets, or if you're feeling brave, bake your own (providing there are no health and safety issues...)!
• Christmas jumpers - Why not?!

Set The Scene - Festive Foodies!

This is my favourite, fun way to start a retrospective. I like my teams to come up with a metaphor to describe the sprint. In previous retrospectives I have used food, drinks, movies, songs, countries, I haven't yet found one that doesn't work. I've even managed to get this to work with teams based in India, where I was worried that this exercise may become lost in translation!

Give the team a few moments to think of a festive food that best describes the sprint just gone. Each person should do this individually. Get each team member to write it on a post it and stick it to the board. Then, go round the team one by one and get them to explain their Festive food and why the sprint relates to that. 

You might want to give an example like:

A tin of Quality Street - The sprint has been great, with lots of variety and interesting stuff going on. However, I picked out a "toffee penny" of a user story that's full of issues...

Gather Data - He's Making A List, Checking It Twice...

Now that the team are warmed up, in good spirits and onto their second mince pie, we need to get to the bottom of their metaphors by thinking about some of the events that occurred during the sprint.

Ask the team to think about some of the events that happened in the last sprint and categorise them into two columns:

"The Naughty List" and "The Nice List".

"The Naughty List" should contain all of the bad, frustrating, annoying and generally unfortunate things that occurred during the sprint. This could be anything from poorly defined stories, build issues, lack of knowledge etc.

"The Nice List" should contain all of the good things that occurred during the sprint!

Use the Post It notes to compile the list!

I'd recommend giving the team the length of 2 to 3 songs worth of time to compile the list.

Once this is done, get each person to read out their events of the sprint, explaining why each is either naughty, or nice!

Generate Insights - Santa's Sleigh

Now that as a team we have learned a little bit more about the sprint, it's time to do something about it! Let's use the idea of Santa's Sleigh.

All of the items on the Naughty List are weighing Santa's Sleigh down, causing his productivity on Christmas Eve to struggle. These are his presents. If we can somehow remove, or deliver his presents, his Sleigh will fly a little more smoothly, causing him to be more productive.

The items on the Nice List however, are helping to pull Santa's Sleigh along. These are his trusty reindeer! How can we do more of things on the Nice List, or do them better? Think of this as adding a reindeer to the sleigh. 

Using the Naughty and Nice lists as a reference, ask each team member to come up with 1 idea to deliver presents (tackle an item on the naughty list) and 1 idea to add a reindeer (maximise the nice list).

Again, limit this to a number of songs and get each team member to explain their idea to the team!

Decide What To Do - North Pole Dollars

Now in order to keep the number of action points to take into the next sprint manageable, we need to decide as a team which we would like to focus on.

To do this, the team needs to come to a collective agreement. I have tried many ways to quickly, fairly and efficiently do this, but find that dot voting or a twist on relative estimation is the best. As we did a twist on dot voting in my last themed retrospective, lets go with relative estimation this time.

Hand out your Planning Poker cards to each team member. Ask the team to quickly decide which improvement would be the least valuable to the team. Once this is decided, the team should estimate this by holding up a card. 

Take an average based on the estimation,so if the team hold up a 1, 3, 1, 5 and a 13, then the average is 23/5= 4.6. Multiply this average by 1000 to give you your value.

For added fun you can assign a monetary value to this, say North Pole Dollars. Therefore this improvement has a value to the team of NP$4,600. I first used this idea of assigning fictitious currency when doing my ScrumMaster certification training and found it fun and a great way to help prioritise!

Using this item as a frame of reference, ask the team to assign values through planning poker to all the remaining improvements and collate a leader board (from highest value to least) for them all.

Once you have finished, the top 3 improvements are the most valuable to the team and the ones to be carried into the next sprint! Make sure that you don't forget to assign the responsibility of looking after each action to someone and agree on the next steps!

Close Retrospective - Secret Santa

By now, you should have some actions to take into the next sprint. It's time to end the retrospective with a little fun! 

Anonymously, ask each team member to write a name of a team member who had the most positive impact on the sprint (no cheating and writing your own name here!). If they can also think of a reason (that doesn't give their identity away) too, write that down as well.

Then, fold the notes and pop them in a bag for the ScrumMaster to draw out. One by one, draw the notes reading out the name and reason! This should give the team a boost, an opportunity to show some appreciation and have some fun too!

If you're team doesn't like the idea of this (I find some software teams don't like some of this hippy "feel good" stuff), you can always instigate a game of Christmas charades!

Have a go at introducing some festive cheer into your next retrospective and remember to let me know how you get on!

Stand Up! (and be counted)

It's 8:35am and my Outlook is ringing at me - time for our daily stand up.

I perform a variety of roles in my team, from Product Ownership to marketing and sales to agile coach. This doesn't mean that I sit out the meeting and leave it to the devs (we don't have testers, our devs do that, but that's a whole other blog post...). No way! I want to know what is going on and see if I can help!

Photo courtesy of ScrumShortcuts.com

Over the past 12 months I've coached over 20 development teams. Some new to agile/lean/scrum, so not so new. One thing that I like to get nailed immediately is the daily stand up.

Why is the daily stand up so important? Why do I need to go? Why do I care what everyone else is doing? Can't I just email it? Isn't that what the Kanban is for? These are some common questions (excuses) that I hear.

Here are some reasons and tips to help your team take advantage of this traditional SCRUM discipline.

1. It gives the team a heads up of what you have been and are going to be working on - I like to answer three questions; Since the last stand up I worked on... Until the next stand up I intend to work on... The issues that I have are...
2. It gives the team a chance to raise issues to each other - Sometimes sitting in a dark corner with your headphones on "wired in" is not the best way to solve problems. Speak. Collaborate. Listen. Learn!
3. It gives the team a chance to SOLVE issues AFTER the stand up for each other - Don't waste others time by going into detail (or showing how clever you are) of how you're going to help solve some iOS memory leak issues, save it till the stand up is finished and solve it then.
4. It gives the Product Owner the chance to share vital information, feedback and insight with the team - Yes, that's what I said, Product Owner. They absolutely need to be there too!
5. It improves team bonding in only a few minutes - You'd be amazed at what the 2 mins on chit chat whilst you're stood waiting with a coffee for the last couple of members to walk over can achieve!
6. It provides the opportunity for stakeholders to come and LISTEN to what is happening in the team - Anyone can come along and listen. If they have any questions afterwards, the ScrumMaster should be on hand to help out!
7. It provides a mechanism for problems that cannot be solved by the team to be quickly escalated - This is where a great ScrumMaster will come into play to initiate a Scrum of Scrums (or Stand ups of Stand ups).
8. It can present the chance to have fun within the team! - There are some great games that you can play when holding the daily stand up to keep team members on topic. At McKenna Consultants we throw around a small rugby ball (rugby - scrum, get it?!) to indicate who can talk. Sometimes this can be a good laugh, especially if someone is not paying too much attention! I have worked with other teams who do things such as provide weather reports to summarise how their day have been and how they expect it to be! The book Scrum Mastery has some good ideas of how to "Sex up your Scrum".
9. It involves remote team members - Just because you are working with an offshore team in India doesn't mean you have an excuse! Get them involved. Use Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, whatever you like. Just remember that it is important to actually be able to see them on screen! We recently worked closely with Rocket Matter in Florida on an iPad app project. We installed a couple of clocks in our office and set one to London, GMT and the other to Florida, USA, EST and arranged a daily stand up at a mutually convenient time. Guess what? Despite not actually ever meeting the other team members, we got on great and delivered an amazing product
   !
10. Coffee - Do we really need an excuse to make the morning coffees?

When setting up your stand up, you just need to remember two things:

1. Agree a time and stick to it
2. Agree a structure and stick to it

The stand up is hugely undervalued and I am sure that your team can get more out of it that you currently do! Start getting more out of your daily stand up and be counted!

How To Justify A 60" TV To Your Boss

Christmas is fast approaching, so it's time to ask your boss for a present for you and your development team - a 60" TV.

Imagine the shock on your boss's face when you ask them to buy you a Samsung 60" Full HD LCD TV (other brands are available!!), or even worse, the shock when you just go and order one yourself on your company credit card.

You're going to need a pretty good reason for it, and you're going to need to convince them that you don't just want it for the F1 practice sessions or to hook it up to your Sky Go or Amazon Fire TV account.

Star Trek Season 1 and our JIRA Kanban board on 2 of our many TVs!

Luckily, that is where I come in!

I am a big fan of visual management, kanban, information radiators. If it's big, bright and in my face, I'm likely to pay attention. In our office at McKenna Consultants we have 5 large TVs to display information, have fun and create a great working environment. This doesn't seem a lot, but when you consider that there are only a handful of us in the office at any one time...

We get tremendous value out of the screens. Here are 10 ways in which we use, and you could use, a 60" TV to support your agile team.

1. Electronic Kanban - This is the simplest and probably most valuable use that you will get from a large TV. Get the team's kanban digital and get it out there for all to see! We use JIRA, but you can use TFS, Trello, Target Process or create your own. If your kanban is easy for all to see, infomation will flow, Product Owners will be empowered, ScrumMaster will be aware, the Team will be self organised and motivated, Stakeholders will be a glance away from being in the loop and collaboration will flourish. This isn't to mention the other benefits of having a digital kanban (supports remote working, backed up etc). One caveat to this is that you need to have a reliable established process. It is much easier to adapt a whiteboard kanban than it is a digital one!
2. Performance Metrics - Server stats, build warnings, load and usage statistics. You can get it all on one screen so that the Team can keep an eye on things. Find out what is important to your Team and get it on there.
3. Processes - Great Teams should have a clear understanding of the process and why we do things the way we do. Be proud of this and make it visible. Get your Definition of Done, Definition of Ready, Development Process, Coding Standards and any other process or framework that you follow on the screen. This will embed a high quality culture in your team and also serve as a constant reminder to new members and stakeholders of how you do things.
4. Burndowns - Burndowns are only useful if they are kept up to date and acted upon. ScrumMasters can make it easy for the team by making it digital. Use a spreadsheet. Create a plugin to your backlog software. Get the graph up on the TV. I often see burndowns neglected and out of date. They are no use to anyone if the information is not acted upon!
5. Case Studies - Prepare some case studies of the work that the Team has done. Quite often our Customers and/or Stakeholders will visit the Development Team. Be loud and proud of the work that you have achieved! Wow potential Customers and remind existing ones.
6. Diaries - It can be really frustrating when the Development Team need the Product Owner, only to realise that they are out on site today. Probably should have asked the question yesterday, or looked ahead at the backlog had they known. Prevent this by getting the Team's calendars up in lights. We have had our diaries up for everyone to see for years and it saves so much time as we all know who is where and when!
7. Technology News Feed - We (mostly) all work in the software industry. In an industry as forward thinking, fast moving and constantly changing as ours, we need to stay in touch. Get the BBC Technology page up, Mashable, industry specific web pages loaded. Not only will this serve as a constant reminder, but it may inspire new and creative ideas!
8. Social Media Feeds - Similar to point 7, we need to stay in touch with what is going on in our respective industries. We can also hook up to a social media management account like Hootsuite or TweetDeck to manage company and/or product accounts. This is a great way of quickly sharing Customer feedback with the Team.
9. TV - Use the TV as God intended (he created TV on the 7th day, right?) - to watch TV shows! Hook your TV up to an Amazon Fire TV (like us) and stream movies to provide some background noise to the office. Star Trek is a popular choice. This will provide the team with a boost now and then (introduce Star Trek Tuesdays - where the team gets together on a Tuesday lunch to watch an episode). You will need to get a company TV licences for this and will have to check about PRS licences (or similar) depending upon where you are!
10. Gaming - Another way to boost morale - play some games on it! After work competitions, chance for Team members to break away and clear their thoughts or an incentive to finish a piece of work, take advantage of the TV!

If you want to use multiple webpages, there are some great, free, Chrome extensions out there that will rotate through webpages automatically for you.

There are many other ways in which you can use a TV - I'd be keen to hear how you use them in your Team.

Use this list to help your Team to make better use of your TV, or to help you to justify a 60" TV to your boss. You can thank me later! ;)

I'd also like to take a moment to thank @mattdufeu for giving my Halloween themed retrospective a go this week. I will be checking out his blog to see how it went!