Let’s retrospect with games
Hi, my name is Yafit, I work @ Avaya company. I am a senior software engineer, programming my way at the company using C/C++/Java, having the ability to learn new technology and new technique. Avaya is a company that makes it possible for one to try/make mistake/success/solve problems/initiate new traditions and way of work.
So… I became a scrum master, it was a growing process. One cannot become a scrum master in a day. After two years of being part of an Agile group, participating at Agile forums and conversions, I can proudly say that I am a scrum master.
I found that being a scrum master is a great opportunity to express your creativity and get the chance to watch and learn how the team works. It is like you become aware of others in the team on purpose. At the beginning I did it because it was written in the Scrum Guide. Very fast it became a part of me. getting a good filling if the team managed to put on the board some of his deep thoughts, free opinion, self-wishes and preference of what task to take and how. I became in love with the title :-)
I would like to share with you some of my Retrospective ideas. In a few steps you can find the retrospective an easy task to perform.
# During the sprint, be aware of the team, at daily’s at coffee break talk, and meeting. and write down every point raised that might be worth talking at retrospective.
# Remind the team to write down to themselves, issues they are facing during the sprint, thoughts they have related to the teamwork and the sprint, anything that might be worth raising at retro. simply write it down to themselves, so they can use it later at retro.
# Before the retrospective meeting, be prepared go over the sprint backlog, e-mails related to the sprint, calendar to check special meetings you had, anything that might remind you of the passed sprint.
Following are my own Ideas for retro:
Playing Kahoot
The Must or Tell game
Make it happen with TRUE or FALSE sentences
Memory challenge
Monopoly Retro
Continue with my own interpretation for the agile-retrospectives-ideas-exercises.
1. Going on a trip to the deserted Island
2. Choosing the right CAR
Playing Kahoot.
you can see an example of kahoot at the following:
https://create.kahoot.it/details/82c66c7e-5a6e-458f-9bb5-259cc8c0d9f7
The Kahoot allow to create a quiz with 4 answers option. using it at the RETRO helps the team members express their thought on certain issue, without the need to expose themselves.
How to do it?
phrase questions that deals with the issue raised during the sprint.
example:
During the sprint the Scrum master felt no one volunteers to new task that becomes urgent but are not so sexy to implement. Scrum master is one of the team there for he is not the garbage collector of all the left-over tasks. And on top Scrum master cannot point on team member to take the task. It must come from the team. The problem is how do you make the team volunteer, even when the task is not interesting or considered to be a hard work task.
The following example offer one way to overcome this using Kahoot:
Phrase a question (i.e.) “How do we handle a must do task raised during the sprint”
Phrase 4 optional answers for i.e.:
“I do not take task I do not like”
“The scrum master should do it”
“If I am free I will take the task”
“The scrum master should point on who need to do the task”
There is no right answer. but when voting on the answer, we can get the filling of the team. Now it is time to face the issue.
Go over the answer chosen, without raising names, and talk about it. you will see that some of the team members wishes to explain themselves, or even better the issue become into their awareness, and some ideas might pop up, such as what can we do to overcome this? or what do we wish happen?
Extra
make sure to prepare the Kahoot in advanced. search for nice pictures to put as background for the App.
Kahoot offers you a short description at the beginning of the game, use it. write something nice to the team.
make sure to go over the introduction before you start.
Each team member must install Kahoot on his phone or use his laptop for that. the questions should be played on a large screen in the room you are all having the RETRO.
The Must or Tell game
This is a fun and simple game.
The ingredients are:
10 sentences of “Must” do/share written each on a folded note, set in a basket.
10 sentences of “Tell” sentences written each on a folded note, set in a basket.
The team will sit in a circle, in the middle there will be a bottle.
Each team member at his turn will spin the bottle, the team member to which the bottle point at, will be asked to chose: “Must” or “Tell” and take a note accordingly from one of the “Must”/”Tell” baskets.
After reading out loud the note he choose, the team member will have to refer to the sentence written on the note.
I suggest to allow other team member refer to that sentence as well. sometime hearing one of the team raise up thought we were not aware of.
When you fill like each team member got the chance to express himself, or that the Retro time is about to end. you can close the game and go over with the team on what was raised. try to summarize it with the team. I believe some good ideas will be raised for A.I and the best part is, that you had the chance to raise up during retro some issue that effected the team work, without playing the manager role.
Following is an example of “Must” and “Tell” sentences, sure those are related to a specific sprint, but I believe you will get the notion.
“Must”
# You must say from 1 to 10 how much do you understand the release version process, and how much it interest you — This will raise to awareness of the team that version released process is not completely understood or handles correctly.
# You must share with the team how really did you read the metrical sent to us by XXX after his knowledge trans fare — In case the team is in learning process and you get the filling some of them are not fully understand but do nothing with it.
# You must share with us what do you think of how we handle BUGS.
# You must say something positive on our work process
and so…..
“Tell”
# Is it true that there you fill confidence of the version release process we are using?
# Is it true you make sanity test before you merge your changes?
# Is it true you thing the GILDA is efficient process?
# Is it true you fill part of the team?
and so…
Make it happen with TRUE or FALSE sentences
This time the team must come up with original sentences of their own without the scrum master help.
At the daily before the retro (make it a day before), remind the team that the retro is coming. and ask each one of them to come ready with 2 sentences to share with the team. The sentences must be related to the passed sprint.
The first sentence should be a lie, and the second sentence should be a complete truth.
Each team member at his turn will state his sentences. the group will have to say which sentence is a lie and which is truth.
A conversation on those sentences is more than welcome. let the group say their opinion. A situation where part of the team will not agree on the lie sentence or the opposite, the team will disagree on the truth sentence. Talk about it.
Memory challenge
Make it happen using the nice game of memory challenge.
The ice breaker is the game. The player who managed to come with a couple of suitable cards, has the stage to share with the team his thought of the sprint.
The team can change the rules of the game and decide that if the player fail to find a match, the player then has to say something good of the past sprint. and if the player managed to gain a match he has the option to say something that he dislikes of the past sprint, opportunity to make a difference by sharing his thought.
Monopoly Retro
This one is my favorite, I have created a play board based on monopoly board. The idea was to add extra knowledge to the team related to the Agile itself. I used the “Question” cards of the game for that. I wrote question related to Agile (taken from the Scrum Guide) on one side of the card, and on the other side I wrote the 4 option for answer (make sure you have the correct answer with you).
Each team member chooses a play tool, and through the dice at his turn. The player moves according to the dice result. and exactly like at monopoly, if the player land on “?” he takes a question card from the board. and share the team with the question. the team can help him answer. it is the scrum master responsibility to have the correct answer, so eventually the knowledge will be shared.
If the player land on empty step. he then must share with the team his retro thought of the sprint…. what bothered him or what he thought of good experience, what he thinks we should start doing and so….
the game is easy and give the team the opportunity to share their thought freely, and to learn on the Agile itself.
Going on a trip to the deserted Island
The idea was taken from
agile-retrospectives-ideas-exercises
What I did was to set the stage as follows:
1. Place some accessories at the room to make it fill like we are on the beach. you can get the idea from the picture.
2. Buy sorbet served it in small glasses for each team member.
3. paint on the board the scene, a boat sailing towards an island the sun is above, paint a cloud with wind in the sky. Add the waves under the boat, and add the anchor connected to the boat. After setting the stage you can start the make believe as described perfectly at the link above.
Choosing the right CAR
Enhancing the original idea from
agile-retrospectives-ideas-exercises
The idea is that each team member chooses a type of car that describe to his opinion the sprint we had.
This exercise is well described at the link above. I have added some extra of my own:
1. I brought real play cars all kind of, set them on the table for the team to choose and play. it immediately broke the ice, while team member started to race their car on the table.
2. Created cards of the different cars manufacturer.
3. set the different car manufacturer cards into 3 different group according to the prestige.
4. at the end of the retro after each shared his opinion. we had a short car race using the play car. It was fun.
You can watch the Movie.
In conclusion to the this post, I would like to add that the examples of retro I have shared with you are ordered with no special meaning.
I suggest starting your experience with retro meeting using the “Make it happen with TRUE or FALSE sentence”. This is a great ice breaker and as I have mentioned it is an easy way to make the team express themselves.
Please try to be aware of each team member reaction to the issues that are raised at the retro. you will learn a lot only by listening to the team. do not fill like you have to come up with the solution to every issue raised. Use the team to find the way to solve it.
Remember the fault that we are facing (even at retro) are good material for the next retro meeting.
So go there and make the most out of this wonderful tool..
Thank you for reading my post. until the next post I wish you a good retro.
