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Retrospective with incomplete Team

Last post 09:39 am November 30, 2017 by Timo Luck
6 replies
10:44 am November 28, 2017

Hi everyone,

in one of my Scrum Teams a situation occured that makes me wondering how to handle it.

Three people of the team can't participate in the Retrospective due to an appointment which is outside and important for the company and one member is on holiday. So there are only two team members left to participate in the retrospective. We had the discussion in the team about if it makes sense to have a retrospective with most of the team away.

My point was clear to have one anyway because we can still find improvements from the participants and that we had negative experience with canceling the retrospective.

So my question is if you had similar situations and/or what had/would you do?

Cheers and thanks,

Timo


07:25 am November 29, 2017

Inspection and adaptation should occur as closely as possible to the time and place of work. A retrospective should be held at the end of a Sprint with all team members present. Under the circumstances, might it be better to adjust the date of the retrospective, so it is as close as possible to the Sprint boundary and yet has all team members in attendance?


01:44 pm November 29, 2017

Hi Ian,

thanks for you answer. Actually I did just that. Luckily I could find a free hour in the calendars of the team members.

Previously it seemed like we couldn't find another date for the retrospective before over half of the sprint is already over. In that case I would held the retrospective with an incomplete team rather than having no retrospective at all. Would you agree to that?

And another question: Would you say that the completeness of the team in the retrospective values higher than the closeness to the sprint boundary?


02:13 pm November 29, 2017

+1 Ian.

Agree that it is important to keep Scrum ceremonies consistent (same time/place each sprint), as that promotes the Scrum "heartbeat" of a team and reduces waste (lean).   However, in your situation, it is highly advisable to find another time to schedule the retrospective so that most if not all Scrum Team members can attend.

Holding the retrospective with the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and only 1/3 of the Development Team does not sound like an efficient use of everyone's time.


04:14 pm November 29, 2017

I agree with the above, but I think it's important to draw a distinction between one-off and frequent occurrences of team members being unavailable.

If team members regularly have commitments that clash, it might be sensible to choose a different day/time to end sprints.


07:47 pm November 29, 2017

...I would held the retrospective with an incomplete team rather than having no retrospective at all. Would you agree to that?

And another question: Would you say that the completeness of the team in the retrospective values higher than the closeness to the sprint boundary?

I’d agree that in some circumstances those might be the least-worst options.

The Scrum Guide says: “Although improvements may be implemented at any time, the Sprint Retrospective provides a formal opportunity to focus on inspection and adaptation”.

In other words, a team can hold a retrospective (i.e. they can inspect and adapt their working practices) at any point. The important thing is that they do so as a team, and hence each team member ought to be present.

The Sprint Retrospective is a formal opportunity to do so at the close of each Sprint, which is a highly valuable juncture. It is therefore an essential component of Scrum, and it ought to be implemented as effectively as possible.


09:39 am November 30, 2017

Thanks guys for your input! :)


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