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Retrospective – Key Learnings

After each iteration the agile team meets and inspects their previous work in order to overview the methods of each team member, allowing each individual to adapt to the other. The retrospectives work as a catalyst to the development of the team in a positive manner. Unlike outdated methods, the retrospective aims to focus on the whole scale, not only the technical development of the problems. It includes relationships, possible issues and so on.

These meetings have the following goals set in mind:

  • Improve the quality of work of the team
  • Increase the efficiency of the team
  • Allow the team members to constantly adapt and adjust
  • Improve the capabilities of team members
  • Increase the capacity of workload
  • Increase the productivity
  • Amplify learning

The Agile Ideology

Although the latter was focusing on the development teams in the company, retrospectives should be implemented throughout every layer and sphere of the company from the production levels through HR to decision-making managers. It presents the opportunity to each team member to present his concerns, issues or general obstacles he or she experiences on a daily basis.

Why Should You Implement Retrospectives in Your Agile Process?

The only reason our species has managed to exist for such a long period of time is its ability to learn from the past. Once you burn yourself, the burnt mark leaves a solid imprint in your brain, which with generations becomes a part of the DNA and is translated from one generation to another.

With all that in mind, the most common misconception preached in the business world is that learning from practice is automatic, which is absolutely untrue. The phrase “practice makes perfect” wouldn’t make any sense otherwise. Learning from experience requires efforts; however, there is a simple way to speed the whole process up. The very implication that each individual has room for improvement means that the person is doing something wrong. As a team, it would be much easier to investigate each member and expose the channels in which he or she might grow. Figuring out which way to go by yourself could cost you a lot of time.

On another note, each company could be described as a living organism, which constantly grows, develops and adjusts to the new environment and circumstances. The PMI-ACP exam prep training specializes in agile training – all of its virtues and best practices with the retrospectives being a key point.

The retrospective is the last point of conduct in each iteration phase, not holding such meeting wouldn’t bring closure to the team. Members wouldn’t be able to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings and any negative outbursts would be carried forward, building up over the course of time, not only slowing down the workflow but also leading to poor results.

With that in mind, don’t spend too much time on retrospectives as future planning is just as important. Those are only a few things you would learn in our PMI-ACP exam prep online training.