Project Retrospectives Mary Lynn Manns mannsunca edu http

Project Retrospectives Mary Lynn Manns manns@unca. edu http: //www. cs. unca. edu/~manns

Project Retrospective “… the single most important step toward improving the software process!” Kerth, 2001

Why is it so important? When things go well … … we need to share these things with others When things don’t go well … … we need to talk about and solve the problems rather than hiding them or assigning blame

What is a retrospective? A ritual for reviewing projects

Why a retrospective? … To look at the past People stop and learn from their experiences ¨ document the successful practices ¨ avoid same mistakes over and over ¨ share different views ¨ see the big picture ¨ allow your process to adapt to advances in field

Why a retrospective? … To plan the future People are involved in improvements ¨ understand the need for improvement ¨ design improvements ¨ own the improvements ¨ get motivated to improve

Why a retrospective? … To build community People will understand … … what others are doing? . . what they are struggling with … what their talents and limitations are? ……. .

Why a retrospective? … To reach closure People find that it is … Cathartic Informative Enlightening Fun etc…

What a retrospective isn’t ¨ Not a complaint session …everyone did the best job he or she could… ¨ Not a place for finding fault ¨ An end ¨ Not the same every time

What happens before … ¨ Interview participants ¨ Distribute retrospective handout ¨ Request effort data ¨ Request artifacts

What happens In the beginning ¨ Create safety ¨ Write ground rules ¨ Define success ¨ Define insanity ¨ Do the “I’m too busy” exercise

What happens To look at the past ¨ Artifacts Contest ¨ The Big Picture ¨ Time Line ¨ Emotions Seismograph ¨ Passive Analogy ¨ Offer Appreciation ¨ Repair Damage Through Play

What happens To look to the future ¨ Change the Papers ¨ Messages ¨ A Plan for the Future ¨ Posters ¨ One Last Topic ¨ Closing

What to do with the information ¨ Retrospective reports – What worked well that we don’t want to forget? – What should we do differently? – What still puzzles us? – Recommendations to management – Lessons learned ¨ Patterns

Patterns ¨ To capture lessons learned, successful practices ¨ 1970’s: C. Alexander, architecture ¨ 1995: Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software ¨ Patterns for design, testing, management, training, introducing innovation, etc… ¨ http: //hillside. net/patterns/ ¨ http: //www. cs. unca. edu/~manns

Pattern ¨ Problem ¨ Forces ¨ Solution ¨ Context ¨ Rationale ¨ Consequences ¨ Known Uses ¨ Name

Pattern Language A collection of related patterns that work together to solve complex problems

Project Retrospective Looking back in order to move forward