In a previous article I gave you an overview about the scrum retrospective. Within this article I want to show you a short “how to” list which you may use during the meeting as a reminder of the important steps.

 
Show important events

The team should mention the important events of this sprint. The scrum master will note and visualize these events e.g. by adding the according dates and sort the events by sprint weeks.

 
Discuss points

Now each event will be discussed. The good and bad points must be identified. The following things should be done for each point:

• Discuss in the group
• Specify actions
• Determine the benefit of these actions
• Estimate effort to do this actions

 
Follow-up by Scrum Master

After the retrospective the scrum master will update the product backlog together with the product owner. They add all actions from the retrospective which they want to bring into practice.

 
Hints for the review

In some team it is difficult to list all important events at the beginning of the meeting. If you have such a cautious team you may ask for their feedback during preparation time of the meeting. For example you can ask for their feedback a few days before the retrospective meeting. So they have enough time to lean back and think about the last sprint. In this case you may get more feedback as if you try to ask for it during the meeting. Furthermore you have the possibility to do a face to face talk if someone don’t give you any feedback or maybe fears to talk about his true impressions during the meeting.