Agile Retrospective: fire extinguisher or mop up (30 - 60 minutes)

Do you have a list of things decided or agreed in previous retrospectives that still haven't been moved forward. It's easy in a sprint to focus on today's problems, and forget about what we said yesterday. I've certainly been guilty of this.

Apart from keeping a retro log of all the actions that are decided in a retrospective, it can be useful once in a while to revisit things that have been discussed and agreed previously, but are still outstanding.

This retro allows teams to reflect on the problems and decision that were made over the past few months, and decide whether they're still an issue - and if they are, what to do about it.

Setup

  • Draw a fire extinguisher, and surround it with empty sticky notes
  • On another section of the board, draw a bucket and mop
  • On sticky notes, write a short summary of decisions / actions agreed in previous retrospectives that are still outstanding. Stick these around the bucket and mop.
Instructions
  • Ask the team - "are there any burning issues that have come up this sprint that we should discuss as a team?" If there are, write them on the sticky notes around the fire extinguisher. Give the team an opportunity to discuss each, and record any decisions or actions that are agreed.
  • After dealing with any burning issues, or if there aren't any, ask the team to look at the board with bucket and mop.
  • Ask the team if each of the issues / decisions / actions on the sticky notes is still an issue. If it is, discuss what action needs to be taken and put a plan in place. Alternatively you could do something like a problems & actions exercise.

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