Retromat: Program Reflection Activities: 43-54-10-125-14

Take a Stand - Opening (#43)

Participants take a stand, indicating their satisfaction with the iteration
Source: Corinna Baldauf, inspired by Christoph Pater

Create a big scale (i.e. a long line) on the floor with masking tape. Mark one end as 'Great' and the other as 'Bad'. Let participants stand on the scale according to their satisfaction with the last iteration. Psychologically, taking a stand physically is different from just saying something. It's more 'real'.
You can reuse the scale if you close with activity #44.

Story Oscars (#54)

The team nominates stories for awards and reflects on the winners
Source: Marin Todorov

Display all stories completed in the last iterations on a board. Create 3 award categories (i.e. boxes on the board):

Best story
Most annoying story
... 3rd category invented by the team ...

Ask the team to 'nominate' stories by putting them in one of the award boxes.
For each category: Dot-vote and announce the winner. Ask the team why they think the user story won in this category and let the team reflect on the process of completing the tasks - what went good or wrong.

Brainstorming / Filtering (#10)

Generate lots of ideas and filter them against your criteria
Source: Agile Retrospectives

Lay out the rules of brainstorming, and the goal: To generate lots of new ideas which will be filtered after the brainstorming.

Let people write down their ideas for 5-10 minutes
Go around the table repeatedly always asking one idea each, until all ideas are on the flip chart
Now ask for filters (e.g. cost, time investment, uniqueness of concept, brand appropriateness, ...). Let the group choose 4.
Apply each filter and mark ideas that pass all 4.
Which ideas will the group carry forward? Does someone feel strongly about one of the ideas?Otherwise use majority vote.

The selected ideas enter Phase 4.

Three by Three (#125)

Build on each other's ideas to create a great action item
Source: Simon Tomes

This silent brainstorming technique helps the team come up with truly creative solutions and gives quiet people equal footing:

Everyone writes 3 sticky notes with 1 action idea each
Go around the room and pitch each idea in 15 seconds
Gather all stickies so that everyone can see them
Each team member adds their name to the sticky note that inspires them the most
Take off all ideas without a name on them

Repeat this process 2 more times. Afterwards, everyone can dot vote to determine which action(s) the team is going to implement.

Feedback Door - Numbers (ROTI) (#14)

Gauge participants' satisfaction with the retro on a scale from 1 to 5 in minimum time
Source: ALE 2011, Corinna Baldauf

Put sticky notes on the door with the numbers 1 through 5 on them. 1 is the topmost and best, 5 the lowest and worst.When ending the retrospective, ask your participants to put a sticky to the number they feel reflects the session. The sticky can be empty or have a comment or suggestion on it.

Created by Corinna Baldauf

Corinna wished for something like Retromat during her Scrummaster years. Eventually she just built it herself in the hope that it would be useful to others, too. Any questions, suggestions or encouragement? You can email her or follow her on Twitter. If you like Retromat you might also like Corinna's blog and her summaries on Wall-Skills.com.

Co-developed by Timon Fiddike

Timon gives Scrum Trainings. As Integral Coach and Agile Coach he coaches executives, managers, product owners and scrum masters. He has used Retromat since 2013 and started to build new features in 2016. You can email him or follow him on Twitter. Photo © Ina Abraham.