Glossary
What does “Retrospective” mean?
A meeting where a team looks back at a recent period of work to agree what went well, what did not, and what to change.
What it means
A meeting where a team looks back at a recent period of work to agree what went well, what did not, and what to change. It is about improving how the team works, not reviewing the product.
An example
After a two-week sprint, the team notes that urgent requests kept interrupting planned work and agrees to route them through one person next sprint.
Not to be confused with: Post-mortem
A retrospective is regular, after each period of work; a post-mortem looks at one specific incident or failure, usually after it happened.
Where you will see it
In agile teams at the end of each sprint, at the end of projects, and in many teams’ monthly or quarterly rhythm. See our retrospective methods.
Questions
How often should teams hold retrospectives?
At the end of each sprint for Scrum teams, or every few weeks to a month for others.
What makes a retrospective useful?
Honest input, a focus on the few biggest issues, and one or two concrete changes with owners.
Who should attend a retrospective?
The team that did the work. Managers and outsiders can make people less willing to speak honestly, so many teams invite them only when the team asks for their help with a specific problem.
Other meeting words
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