How to manage sprint retrospective with a remote developper ?

Precision: for the meetings we use Google hangouts.

During a Sprint Retrospective, the Scrum Team should inspect and adapt their process by uncovering and deeply questioning many things. Why do you think a pre-populated spreadsheet would be useful?

Hi Ian,

In my previous job, the whole team was in the same office, and we used post-it to answer the 4 main questions (what went well, what didn’t go so well, what have I learned, what still puzzles me) and others.



With a remote developer and using a viseo conf without possibility of projection, I don't see how I will still use post-it, hence the idea of the shared file. It is filled before the retro for two reasons :

- it's complicated for 10 people to fill a file all at the same time

- I prefer writing so that everyone is comfortable to express themselves.

Will this approach help the team to deeply question their process and to explore the options for adapting it? Or might it be too constraining? A Sprint Retrospective isn't about using post-its in a certain way or trying to simulate a particular use of them.

I think I will discuss with the team.

I have a few suggestions you could consider.

1. Teleconferencing in or finding a travel budget is great, when available.  Nothing beats being there in person or at least being a direct participant.
2. If you have phyiscial rituals, having a facilitator often helps.  Whether or not you decide a shared spreadsheet is apropriate for your team, it might still be useful to have your developer email or upload you his responses to the four questions, and you would facilitate his physical participation in the activities.
3. If a team member just can't be there, it might make sense to record the meeting or provide minutes/summaries, so that the person in question can at least derive some of the value they would have by participating.

Maintaining effective Scrum practices becomes more difficult as you add additional remote resources.  If you look at the Nexus guide, you'll see that scaling Scrum is still all about communication, not automation.  However since you only have a single remote resource, you should still be able to derive most of the value from your Scrum events, since the majority of your team (2-8 additional members) should still be present.

Hi Jason,

Thank you for your inputs.

Here you can find some helpful examples of dealing with remote team

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/242829

https://www.15five.com/blog/how-to-manage-remote-team-from-anywhere/

https://rubygarage.org/blog/remote-team-management-tips

http://blog.hubstaff.com/how-to-manage-remote-teams/



These technics are offered by the companies which've faced with your problems.

For communicating with offshore programmers, I suggest using a teleconferencing. Also will be good to have a table with the main troubles and tasks. Before the meeting, teamleads should fill it from urgent to normal.

Before the meeting, teamleads should fill it from urgent to normal.

I personally think it is a good idea for all Scrum Team members to prepare in advance of the Sprint Retrospective, but why would you delegate topic prioritization to a subset of the team?

Also, why would you promote the idea of team leads in Scrum?