The other day we tried a different format for our
heartbeat retrospective . The
iteration was a tough one and I saw some old problems recurring. So
I thought we'd try some root cause analysis to get past the
symptoms to see if we could identify what was really causing the
problems.
Here's the format:
1.
Prime Directive : A team member
read it aloud and then, in turn, I asked ask each person to say
whether they could agree to it.
2. Good and Bad
(5 min)
This is a simplification on the brainstorming technique Mad, Sad
and Glad.
The team split into small groups. Each group was asked to think
back over the iteration and brainstorm the events that were either
good or bad. Good events were written on green post-it notes and
bad events on pink post-it notes. It helped the groups to
categorise the related notes.
retrospective-goodandbad3
Originally uploaded by sjb140470 .
3. Patterns and Shifts (5 min)
In this activity the groups looked for connections between the events to see if any patterns existed. Each group was asked to identify the most important pattern to analyse.
4. 5 Whys (30 min)
The groups used the 5 Whys technique to reveal the root cause for their selected pattern or event. This generated some interesting discussion.
Each group presented the root cause they identified to the rest of the team.
5. What Can You Do About It
The groups reconvened to discuss and agree on an action they could take into the next iteration to address the root cause they had identified. Ideally this was captured as a user story. The user stories were presented to the rest of the team to solicit a team-wide commitment to the actions.
