Sprint Retrospective of the last Sprint
Hello,
I'm a software engineering student. I'm now finishing my end of degree project, which develops around the idea of the development of a software using Scrum instead RUP, which is the methodology commonly used for developments in my university. Because of this I need to make sure that everything is really consistent because teachers don't look very friendly to non-RUP stuff. So, I've got a question:
My report includes information about the Sprint burndown, predictions, tests, user stories and meetings, including the Sprint retrospective meeting. I'm now done with the full development, and so I need no more Sprints. Should I then hold a retrospective meeting?
On the one hand I don't see it makes too much sense, since as far as I understand, this meeting is used to extract conclusions from the Sprint mistakes and define actions to be taken in order to improve the become of the upcoming Sprint, but on the other hand maybe that last retrospective meeting could be used to put together the things I've learned during this development and how I'll apply them in the future.
Any opinions/solid replies on this, please?
Thanks,
Jorge.
I side with this opinion:
"that last retrospective meeting could be used to put together the things I've learned during this development and how I'll apply them in the future. "
There is always a "next sprint" -- it just may not be on this product/project. Why not use it to celebrate and reflect on how you might do things differently in a future product/project?
Yeah that's what I thought at the beginning. But things that in this project were very heavy (like GUI development for example, in this case), and because of that had high estimations, may be very easy or less important in upcoming projects in completely different environments. This may drive me to overestimate graphic tasks in projects in which I think it's necessary but it's actually not, leading to obviously undesired wastes of time. So, why would I want to take into account facts from this project in future projects which may be absolutely different from this?
Are you saying you can predict the future? If so, then you should not be in college. You should be in Las Vegas. :-)
You cannot predict today what will benefit you in the future. I seriously doubt a couple of hours in a retro is going to ruin your life. Maybe you should consider questions like, "If I had to start this project all over again, same project, what are the 3 biggest things I would do differently?" Surely there is value there for you in the future.
So, I should say like 'okay, let's keep this experience for similar developments, but don't mix it in other places because it may drive to mistakes'. Looks reasonable I guess, although feels strange, I thought the experience wouldn't depend pretty much on the developed project.
Thanks.
A retrospective is more about looking at the process than the product. I'd expect a final retrospective to continue coming up with lessons about the way Scrum is applied, and with a focus on the potential improvement of future projects.
> okay, let's keep this experience for similar developments, but don't mix it in other places because it may drive to mistakes
You don't need to say anything like that. Just facilitate, and see what lessons your team learns or chooses to reflect upon. Don't just look back 1 sprint, look back over all of the sprints. Encourage your team to think about what they would do better.
Maybe you don't see this because you're a student, but I can tell you, every experience I have in sw dev shapes every other future experience. The experiences may be directly applicable, indirectly applicable, or non applicable, and I think people will use common sense to decide what is what.
Also, don't forget to celebrate!! All's well that ends. :-)