<b>Question: If there is only ONE thing you can pick up from Agile practice, ...

Terrence Miao - 2012-10-13 13:52:34+1100 - Updated: 2012-10-13 13:54:33+1100

Question: If there is only ONE thing you can pick up from Agile practice, which one do you want to choose?

Answer: Retrospective.

Retrospective is not only a learning process - to discover, share, and pass along from past experience, but also for the improvement, a best way to grow project by project. In addition to that, retrospective is an efficient and important way for team building - yield foster a stronger and better team.

As Retrospective Prime Directive, in Norm Kerth's book <<Project Retrospectives: A Handbook for Team Reviews>> points out - Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.

As in another good book <<Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great>> says:

"With regular tune-ups, your team will hum like a precise, world-class orchestra."

A true Agile practice really makes sense in the end ...

Oleg Kiorsak - 2012-10-13 22:09:11+1100

interestingly, most places choose only the standup meetings ;)

Terrence Miao - 2012-10-13 22:11:01+1100

+Oleg Kiorsak Those are the places people really don't understand the essential of Agile ;-)

Oleg Kiorsak - 2012-10-13 22:12:35+1100

+Terrence Miao hehe... (I know... this is why couldn't resist ;)

Oleg Kiorsak - 2012-10-13 22:14:03+1100

+Terrence Miao also these are places with a lot of "expertise" in meetings... ;-)

Kieran Simpson - 2012-10-14 13:59:30+1100

I would toss up between retros and planning/backlog grooming. Having productive planning for well defined stories/acceptance criteria is what makes things possible. Otherwise I'd be writing word docs for the rest of my life.

Dean Budd - 2012-10-15 11:05:59+1100 - Updated: 2012-10-15 11:29:29+1100

I would agree with Retrospectives. Retrospectives are just another feedback loop. We also apply retro's in increasingly smaller circles.

In TDD (the smallest feedback loop) a passing test becomes a Retrospective about to improve the design (The Refactor in Red-Green-Refactor)
If you practice Pair Programming then you're doing continuous retrospectives.
If you instead practice Code Reviews you are performing a Retrospective at Code Review time.
Stand-Ups are simply daily Retrospectives.
Then you have Retrospectives in the normal sense i.e end of Sprint
Followed by Release Retrospectives and finally Project Retrospectives.

=)

Terrence Miao - 2012-10-15 22:52:05+1100 - Updated: 2012-10-15 23:15:33+1100

+Dean Budd My respect and admiration for you is like the surging river, boundless without end in sight; also like the flood water, inundated out of control ...

Kieran Simpson - 2012-10-15 23:08:22+1100

+Terrence Miao Just make sure you give +Dean Budd breakfast and a cab fare home ;)

Dean Budd - 2012-10-16 08:34:58+1100 - Updated: 2012-10-16 08:37:01+1100

+Terrence Miao HAHAHAHA!