Retrospective Smells/Antipatterns

Insights On Retrospectives by Willem Larsen @cascadiaWillem

Table Of Contents

• Section 1: Introduction
• Section 2: Assumptive Antipatterns
• Section 3: Process Antipatterns

Introduction

Editors note: This was extracted from Willem Larsen's Twitter feed and it reflects work he did at the end of 2018 into the beginning of 2019.

Had fun designing a retro-facilitator training, came up with anti-patterns that seem to break retros or smother their impact.

Assumptive Antipatterns

The following are "assumptive" anti-patterns - the expectations that we bring with us into them. I've rendered them as statements of internal dialogue. If you find yourself thinking any of things going into a retro, consider whether or not you can set them aside, or perhaps experiment with testing whether they are truly accurate assumptions.

• THE SHRUG - "It probably doesn't matter."
• TOUGH IT OUT - "It's not that big of a deal. It'll probably go away on it's own if I ignore it."
• FATALIST - "Nobody cares anyway."
• NICE GUY - "I don't want to make anybody uncomfortable."
• PARTY POOPER - "I don't want to ruin the fun that we are still able to have in spite of our issues."
• THE DEVIL'S POM-POMS - "Our team is already great, there's no need to try to improve!"

Process Antipatterns

The next anti-patterns are process-oriented, rather than expectation/assumptions

• ORPHANS - Next actions with no courier/handler name attached to midwife their implementation.
• LOST CAUSE - When the facilitator is responsible for the effectiveness and outcome of the retro.
• CONFLICT OF INTEREST - When facilitator offers data, insights, and next actions.
• THE BLOB - A retro with no timebox, or that consistently exceeds its timebox, even with consent of participants.
• TOLD YOU SO - A retro that generations next actions that we were going to do anyway, from data and insights we already shared going in.
• FIRE AND FORGET - Next actions dropped because they were fundamentally uninteresting - the team agreed on them but didn't believe in them.

Expansion on Why I Told You So is an Antipattern

You’ll note that I mentioned the same data and insights, meaning other options weren’t discussed, and the same action was decided upon anyway in an empty ceremony. In that case a retro is irrelevant. Retros should uncover unshared data, new insights, etc.