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| <mainDescription><p>
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| Retrospectives, as applied in software development, have historical roots in Project Retrospectives described as:
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| </p>
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| <blockquote>
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| "A ritual held <b>at the end</b> of a project to learn from the experience and plan changes for the next
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| effort." [<a class="elementLinkWithUserText" href="./../../../openup/guidances/supportingmaterials/references_6CCF393.html#KER01" guid="_9ToeIB83Edqsvps02rpOOg">KER01</a>]
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| </blockquote>
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| <p>
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| While Retrospectives conducted at the end of a project remain valuable, the spirit of Retrospectives should be imbued
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| across the project continuum, conducted at key project milestones: at the end of project iterations, releases, and
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| immediately upon occurrences of key project incidents (significant unexpected events). 
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| </p> 
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| <p> 
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| When the practice of
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| Retrospectives is intimately intertwined with the processes of the project, the health of the team is constantly
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| monitored, the heartbeat of project progress is readily measured, and the team hones an awareness of opportunities for
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| improvement and increased productivity. A symbiotic relationship emerges between an evolutionary development process
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| and a Retrospective that supports the various methods of inspection and adaptation.
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| The iteration, incident, and project Retrospectives are designed, in part, to calibrate the team's progress with the
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| goals of the project. Several methods can be used to incite the Retrospective team to begin their collective
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| investigative work, such as posing the following three driving questions to the team: "What worked well for us during
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| the past iteration (or project, and so on)?", "What did not work well for us during the past iteration (or project, and so on)?",
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| and "What should we do differently, or what improvements should we undertake during our next iteration (or project, and so on)". 
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| </p> 
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| <p> 
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| The questions are expected to generate actions that will assist the team in prioritizing suggested improvements
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| for the project, to be implemented during the subsequent cycle. In addition to the aforementioned investigative
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| questions, a Retrospective should include steps that provide structure for the team's focus and resulting work.
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| An effectively facilitated Retrospective will create an environment that is conducive to various practices of
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| inspection and adaptation. The methods of inspection and adaptation are project control mechanisms that assume, and
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| respond to, the existence of complexity, unpredictability, and constant change. Practiced in the context of a
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| Retrospective, the methods of inspection and adaptation produce a feedback loop from which flexibility, responsiveness,
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| and reliability are realized.
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| The mere execution of Retrospectives is insufficient without an organizational commitment to a collaborative culture.
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| The success of Retrospectives is directly proportional to, and necessarily contingent on, an environment that engenders
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| highly motivated and performing teams (not the individual), nurtures open and frequent communication, and a thriving
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| sense of dedication to the team community. Retrospectives embody the spirit of team collaboration and self-reflection
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| by offering an environment in which teams are encouraged to provide feedback and identify lessons learned [<a class="elementLinkWithUserText" href="./../../../openup/guidances/supportingmaterials/references_6CCF393.html#DER06" guid="_9ToeIB83Edqsvps02rpOOg">DER06</a>]. The compositional aspects of the team are crucial in supporting the highly
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| collaborative nature of Retrospectives, enabling the team to produce insight(s) into improving the processes of the
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| project.
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| The participants that gather in the context of a Retrospective constitute more than a "working group".
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| The participants should be thought of as "a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to
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| a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable." [<a class="elementLinkWithUserText" href="./../../../openup/guidances/supportingmaterials/references_6CCF393.html#KAT93" guid="_9ToeIB83Edqsvps02rpOOg">KAT93</a>]
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| The participants should consist of individuals representing cross-functional groups, having been involved in the
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| project period or project incident for which the Retrospective will be conducted. The size of the team is important,
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| for the rigorously participative environment of the Retrospective may be difficult to achieve with an overwhelmingly
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| large group (25+ individuals), and a time-boxed period in which to conduct the Retrospective. Conversely, a
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| small set of participants that is under-represented by the appropriate functional groups will limit the
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| benefits and productivity of team collaboration and self-organization. Although a Retrospective achieves productive
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| results by actualizing team responsibility, self-organization, and opposing traditional imposing authority, the work
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| conducted in a Retrospective - involving the members of cross-functional groups - demands the presence of a designated
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| facilitator.
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| The individual that is designated to assume the role of facilitator, or Retrospective leader, should possess
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| fundamental skills of a facilitative management approach:
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| </p>
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| <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
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| <p class="quote">
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| "A facilitator is an individual who enables groups and organizations to work more effectively; to collaborate and
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| achieve synergy. She or he is a "content neutral" party who by not taking sides or expressing or advocating a point
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| of view during the meeting, can advocate for fair, open, and inclusive procedures to accomplish the group's work. A
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| facilitator can also be a learning or dialogue guide to assist a group in thinking deeply about its assumptions,
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| beliefs and values and about its systemic processes and context." [<a class="elementLinkWithUserText" href="./../../../openup/guidances/supportingmaterials/references_6CCF393.html#KAN96" guid="_9ToeIB83Edqsvps02rpOOg">KAN96</a>]
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| </p>
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| </blockquote>
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| <p>
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| The facilitator can be expected to allow the participants to exercise a sense of ownership in the operating mode of
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| thought, act to remove impediments to the team's effort to reach targeted goals, foster an environment of trust and
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| thriving collaboration, and support the team in a manner that allows the team to achieve its best thinking. Ultimately,
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| the facilitator focuses on managing the format of the Retrospective, while the participants hone their skills in
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| managing the Retrospective content and maintaining a high-performance, participatory group dynamic.
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| </p></mainDescription> |
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