RETROSPECT

It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in retrospect. - Robert Louis Stevenson

A retrospect, or "retro" for short, is an overview or review of a past course of events or period of time. Retrospect is an important concept in Agile and enshrined in the 12th principle of the Agile Manifesto.

Regularly, the team reflects on how to become more effective, and adjusts accordingly

In Agile methodology retrospect

is a meeting that is held at the end of an iteration in Agile software development. During the retrospective, the team reflects on what happened in the iteration and identifies actions for improvement going forward.

During strategy execution, the concept of retrospective can also be applied to review the results of the strategy with the aim of learning lessons from the last iterations. Such a meeting can be arranged at the end of an OKR cadence.

Objectives

1. Review performance of last cadence

2. Identify areas where corrective action is required

3. Learn from past mistakes

Approach

1. Review the previous retrospect's report

2. Review the results over the last cadence

3. Frame updated recommendations

Output

1. List of concrete actions for improvement

Actors

1. Delivery Manager

2. Facilitator

3. All stakeholders

Activities

Review previous report

A previous review report can be a good starting point. The team should review the previous report to check on the status of problems identified, improvements recommended, and whether progress has been made. This is necessary to avoid making the same mistakes over and over again.

Retrospect Meeting

Each team should conduct a retrospect meeting before determining the next OKRs. The retrospective is an opportunity for team members to look back and review their accomplishments during the last OKR cadence. They can assess and evaluate both their successes and failures in order to learn from them, identify opportunities for improvement, and work together to improve future goals and key outcomes. The retrospect is an excellent tool for continuous improvement of business metrics.

Guidelines:

1. Agenda should be clearly defined

2. Ensure participation of all team members whether face to face or through video conferencing

3. Clearly establish the rules of engagement

4. Discuss both successes and failures

5. Focus should be on the workflow and not individuals

6. Ensure feedback is always constructive

7. Use it an opportunity to identify improvements for next iterations

8. Document a retrospect report and share with all team members for feedback

Closure

The key results and initiatives for the last cadence should be closed. The status of completion should be indicated as either closed-achieved, or closed-not-achieved. Lessons learned should also be updated for future reference.