The Concept of a Retrospective (a Lessons Learnt meeting) should be familiar to anybody Working on an Agile Project. The Concept should be familiar to anyone who has actually Worked on any sort of Project. There have been a number of different names over the years that explain this activity. The activity of Reviewing what took place throughout a Project, such as “post-mortem” or “lessons discovered”. Some individuals may argue that these are not the same thing for a range of factors. The inputs, discussions and actions arising out of such Meetings however are Fundamentally the same.

There are various adjectives one can hang in front of the word “Retrospective”, such as “Sprint”, “Release” or “Project”. When it comes to the end of a Project, the holding of a Project Retrospective is in some cases perfunctory or omitted entirely. This often occurs because the Development Team is being disbanded, now that the Project has completed.

Lessons Learnt in the Retrospective

A Project Retrospective can add remarkable Value to the Company. There is a wealth of value that it gives thanks to the Learning it brings. Even with small, nuclear Projects that have held regular Sprint Retrospectives, the Project Retrospective can combine all the experiences from those Sprints into a Roadmap for subsequent Projects. It can likewise analyze other areas of Product Development, such as Stakeholder Management and Product design.

If there were many change demands during the Project, it can suggest that the design process needs reinforcing. It can likewise indicate that the Stakeholders were not engaged. Or maybe the Requirements were not understood and were not turned into relevant User Stories. The overall sentiment of Stakeholders towards the finished Product can likewise be Reviewed. This helps to determine whether expectations were fulfilled. If expectations were not fulfilled, what can be Done to remedy this is future Projects can be discussed.

Lessons Learnt in large Projects.

An advantage that a Project Retrospective has over a Sprint Retrospective is that it brings together numerous Teams in the case of a large Project. The Project Retrospective is not limited to a Meeting at Project close-out either; with really large Projects, it might be suggested to have more than one Project Retrospective, say midway during the Project.

Learning from Failure

While Agile is structured in such a way that a struggling Project can “Fail Fast”, this is not the time to walk away. There are a number of reasons why a Project may fail. It is not always the Development Team not Delivering. The Project Retrospective can unearth why a Project Failed. It is the very first action towards guaranteeing failure does not re-occur.

Capitalizing on Success

Effective Projects can contribute to the repository of Company understanding. Process enhancements can be recognised during the Scrum and used to the next Sprint. Care must be taken that the knowledge is not lost when the Scrum closes down. While this can be accomplished through other ways, the Project Retrospective is a formal methods of recording:-.

• why the process needed improvement.
• how it was enhanced.
• the quantifiable Benefits it brought to the Project, such as lowered time to complete, decrease of defects or more effective Teamwork, compared to earlier Sprints.

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There are other elements of the Project that might have been enhanced, such as:-.

• accelerated Team maturity and/or decrease of conflict through using specific Tools and techniques.
• Improvements in the conduction of Ceremonies (Meetings) in Scrum, by adhering to the Framework, as coached by the Scrum Master.
• Improved knowledge transfer and how it was accomplished. Such as the Product Owner‘s training to all Team members on how to write relevant User Stories.
• New Tools and strategies that were attempted that added or detracted from Project success.

All of these would have a direct Benefit on Projects going forward. The Benefits could also extend beyond Agile Development in the IT area. They can provide Valuable lessons for the remainder of the Organisation.

Making Certain of Lessons Learnt

In order to increase the Benefit of a Project Retrospective, the audience ought to be as wide as possible. This should be done without making the Meeting too large to be Manageable. Representatives from other Teams ought to likewise be welcomed, especially if it was a Multi-Team Project. The Scrum Master who facilitates the Retrospective understands how to avoid this. They look to get active involvement from all his Team members.