With more and more organisations adopting agile project management for their software development projects, sprint is a word known to all IT professionals. As you already must know, the sprint cycle is made of four steps: planning, execution, review, and retrospective. We will discuss the significance of an important element of the very last step in this article - What Went Well Retrospective.
What went well retrospective is exactly what it sounds like - discussing the elements that worked in the last sprint. Imagine a balloon being filled with hot air and when it is left, it automatically flies up. That’s exactly what a what went well retrospective does to the team! It uplifts the team morale so they feel confident about their abilities and raise their bar a notch higher.
And who doesn’t like being praised? But does that mean sprint retrospective what went well should be used now and then? No. So, when should that really be done to optimise team performance? If you know how the sprint cycle works, you probably already know the answer - at the end of each sprint.
The retrospective call also discusses what did not go well. But for the sake of clarity we will not discuss that. And, for even more clarity, we can have a look at sprint retrospective what went well examples. A few of the sprint retrospective sample answers are given below.
From what you have read so far, you probably think a what went well retrospective is a boring affair. What if we tell you it’s not? Or at least it need not be? Depending upon how well you want your team members to engage in the call, you can make it formal or informal. We recommend that you make it as fun as possible so that you hit another goal through this call - team building. Here is how.
And to make the process even easier, you can use Sup Bot - the complete standup bot, to engage and retrospect with your team. Let’s see how.
Select the retrospective template from the deck of templates.
Fill in the details as per your requirement.
Select the channels and members whom you want to share.
The first 3 questions will be displayed automatically. You can choose to add more questions.
You can choose to have an intro and an outro for your retrospective followup among other options.
View the responses and generate report to discuss and make notes for the next sprint!
You can share the form to your specific channels or use a link for sharing.
You can now view the responses and discuss the answers given by the team and see how the next sprint can be improved!
The what went well retrospective is organised to improve the next sprint. So, only answering what went well in the last sprint isn’t enough. Lessons can be learnt from what did not go well and identify how things went well. To understand how the next sprint can be made more efficient, it is important to understand what and how things can be improved.
For example, if there was a lack of clarity with regard to projects, the next sprint must have an initial call to ensure the entire team is clear and on the same boat.
The reflection on the past to move forward to the future isn’t something new. But, aligning it to the new work culture and demands of remote working organisations make it a necessity. And with more and more organisations following this trend post-pandemic, it is important to have the tools that make this simple.
Sup Bot, a slackbot aimed to make remote working easy is just the tool for that. With its multiple features, you can simply choose the template or create your own what went well retrospective form to get on with the discussion and charge up your next sprint. So, get a glow up, get Sup!
What went well in retrospective examples - We completed 20 story points this sprint, there was no hotfix required in the last week, Using Supbot for our daily standups reduced meeting time by 50%, etc.
A good retrospective is focused on open communication, continuous improvement, and team cohesion, where the meeting participants can openly share where they went wrong as well as celebrating their successes.
A retrospective meeting is where the meeting participants answer the following three questions:
What went well retrospective simple answers could be: Asynchronous standup meetings were smooth with no dependence on a facilitator, there were fewer bugs reported, etc.
Start with mentioning the positive highlights of the last Sprint. State figures so that what you are saying is more comprehensible. Explain their resultant impact.
