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Clarification: ScrumGuide_Retrospective

Last post 02:57 am February 2, 2014 by Mehdi Hafezi
5 replies
08:48 am January 27, 2014

I have following 3 questions:

1Q) in the Scrum Guide published in July 2013, page 12 I have read this:
"The purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to:
- Inspect how the last Sprint went with regards to people, relationships, process, and tools;
- Identify and order the major items that went well and potential improvements; and,
- Create a plan for implementing improvements to the way the Scrum Team does its work."

what does it mean exactly "relationship"?
interpersonal relationship? for example Mr-X and Mr-Y were very successful in Pair programming. If yes, isn't it already included in the "people"? Or does "relationship" cover more than interpersonal aspects in sprint.

2Q) how long is the recommended duration for a retrospective meeting in 3 weeks, 2weeks and 1 week sprints ,the Scrum guide says the Retrospective meeting for 4 weeks should be 4 hours and for shorter sprints must be respectively shorter. The back ground is that I am preparing a team Charta and write down the organizational aspects for our weekly sprints which starts mid Feb. is 90 min. a reasonable timebox for retro meeting in a 1 week sprint?


3Q) The retrospective meeting is itself an event and could have weaknesses and strengths , when should a retrospective meeting it self be analysed? in the next sprint retrospective meeting?


08:50 am January 27, 2014

Scrum Guide says: "This is a three-hour time-boxed meeting for one-month Sprints"
Sorry,
Mehdi


09:54 am January 27, 2014

Hi
Q1 - I'd say "people" are individual members and "relationships" are across the team. For example, you might have a great DBA who knows their job inside out, but at the same time maybe they have problems communicating with rest of team..... people - tick, relationships - needs some working on.

D


10:22 am January 27, 2014

> Or does "relationship" cover more than interpersonal aspects in sprint. 

Yes it does. It covers relationships with other teams and organizational stakeholders too.

> the Scrum guide says the Retrospective meeting for 4 weeks should be 4 hours 

As you later corrected, it says a Retrospective should be timeboxed to 3 hours for a 4 week sprint. The timebox should be scaled down, in proportion, for shorter sprints.

> when should a retrospective meeting it self be analysed?

Immediately. A retrospective should inspect and adapt all that lies under the team"s control, and as close as possible to the time and place of occurence.


11:09 pm February 1, 2014

I noticed you mention a 1 week sprint. The minimum duration usually recommended for a sprint to be effective is 2 weeks.
Also note that you would be disrupting your team's cadence if you keep changing the duration of a sprint. So pick a reasonable duration and stick to it.


02:57 am February 2, 2014

@Prabhu Missier: Thank you for your Hint.
We have already decided for Sprints of 2 weeks length exactly due to reason that you correctly mentioned.


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