This Looks Like A Job For... AgileMan!

Later this week I'm scheduled to facilitate a Retrospective for a local development group. This will be their first ever Retro, and so they've decided to bring in an outside expert to lead it. I haven't done one in a while, but back in the heyday of my AgileMan stint I was facilitating about one per week. Of course, that was with people who I knew (to some degree or another) and this is with strangers... but I'm hoping it's like riding a bicycle, regardless of who makes the tires!

So in preparing for this engagement, I've been working with the executive sponsor to sort out the logistics for the event (what type of room, duration, number and makeup of attendees, etc) as well as to determine what kind of format might work best. Because it's a Retrospective for a recently-completed project that ran for nearly half a year, we're going to do a Timeline as our main source for gathering data. In an ideal world, a session covering this long a period of time would probably be a full day in length. However, since these folks have never been in one before, we opted for a shorter format (2.5 hours). Because of that, I want to get as much data out on the table as quickly as possible, and a Timeline seemed a good vehicle for that.

Once we've completed that activity and found a few hot spots (via a voting mechanism), then the plan is to use the Force Field Analysis process to uncover what forces have worked for and against whatever it is that we're discussing. From that I hope to be able to lead the team in agreeing on a few Action Items that can be applied on the next project to either weaken some of the opposing forces or strengthen the supporting ones.

It's not the most elaborate agenda I've ever set out for a Retrospective, but I'm trying to remain mindful of the fact that this is something new for this group. I don't want to run the risk of overdoing it on the first step of the journey, and these activities seem appropriate for striking a balance between sophistication and simplification. Of course I won't really know how well I did until I hand out my 1-page Feedback Survey at the end of the session, and then review the results. That's always been my best metric for these jobs, and I've learned a lot from what people given me on them.

And naturally, if you're looking for help with a Retrospective yourself, or any other sort of assistance with an Agile topic, don't hesitate to contact me (AgileMan@sympatico.ca). I'm always on the lookout for jobs for ol' AgileMan (superhero at large)!