Project retrospectives help teams examine what went right and what went wrong on a project. But traditionally, retrospectives (also known as "post-mortems") are only held at the end of the project--too late to help. You need agile retrospectives that are iterative and incremental. You need to accurately find and fix problems to help the team today.

Now Esther and Diana show you the tools, tricks and tips you need to fix the problems you face on a software development project on an on-going basis. You'll see how to architect retrospectives in general, how to design them specifically for your team and organization, how to run them effectively, how to make the needed changes and how to scale these techniques up. You'll learn how to deal with problems, and implement solutions effectively throughout the project--not just at the end.

This book will help you:

• Design and run effective retrospectives
• Learn how to find and fix problems
• Find and reinforce team strengths
• Address people issues as well as technological
• Use tools and recipes proven in the real world

With regular tune-ups, your team will hum like a precise, world-class orchestra.

• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• Helping Your Team Inspect and Adapt
• A Retrospective Custom-Fit to Your Team
• Leading Restrospectives
• Activities to Set the Stage
• Activities to Gather Data
• Activities to Generate Insights
• Activities to Decide What to Do
• Activities to Close the Retrospective
• Releases and Project Retrospectives
• Make It So
• A: Facilitation Supplies
• B: Debriefing Activities
• C: Activities Quick Reference Matrix
• D: Resources for Learning Facilitation Skills
• E: Bibliography