The Retrospective: Improving the Process

The Retrospective is a fundamental event in agile, dedicated specifically to inspecting and adapting the team's work process.

Unlike the Sprint Review, which focuses on the what (the product), the Retrospective focuses on the how (the way the team collaborates and operates).

It is a structured opportunity for the team to reflect on their recent performance, identify what worked well, what didn't work so well, and what improvements they can implement in the future.

It is considered one of the most important meetings because it drives continuous improvement and fosters team ownership of their own processes.

Purpose: Team and Process Reflection and Continuous Improvement

The central purpose of the retrospective is for the team to reflect on how to be more effective and then adjust its behavior accordingly. It is a formal mechanism for continuous improvement.

By analyzing their way of working, tools and interpersonal relationships, the team identifies problems and opportunities.

More importantly, hindsight fosters team ownership of their processes.

By identifying problems themselves, proposing solutions and committing to implement them, they no longer rely exclusively on a coach or manager for improvements, strengthening their capacity for self-organization.

Types of Retrospective (Recurrent, Post-mortem, Pre-mortem)

There are different types of retrospectives according to their purpose and cadence:

Recurring Retrospective: This is the most common in Agile, held at regular intervals (e.g., at the end of each Sprint in Scrum).

It focuses on the recently completed work period to make continuous incremental improvements.

Post-mortem Retrospective: It is held at the end of a project, release of a product or after a significant event (positive or negative, such as a major failure).

Its objective is to analyze in depth the causes of success or failure and extract lessons learned for the future.

Pre-mortem Retrospective: This is a proactive exercise performed before starting a project or launching a product.

The team imagines that the project has failed miserably and brainstorms possible causes. It helps to identify potential risks in advance.

Focus on Concrete Actions, Not Blame

A crucial aspect of any successful retrospective is to maintain a constructive approach.

The goal is not to seek blame or point fingers, but to learn from the experience in order to improve in the future.

Even if mistakes occurred, the discussion should focus on understanding the systemic causes and defining concrete actions to avoid a recurrence.

The most important outcome of