Pages

Friday, January 29, 2016

Review: Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great

Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great by Esther Derby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very practical book with good structure and varying selection of activities to use when leading a retrospective for a software development team. The book is not excessively long: it does not contain a lot of all-too-obvious contemplations on why it is important to do retrospectives - but goes straight to the point, and does it very well. I especially liked the chapter on how to do a proper preparation for a retrospective - something which is too often overlooked from my own experience.

I wish there could be more relevant examples of a short retrospective, done within 1-2 hours when the time is limited. The book could also touch upon the usage of metaphors which from my experience can be a very powerful tool to enhance creativity in a group. Some activities described there felt too childish - but that is up to a facilitator to decide which ones to use.

Overall, an easy and practical read for anyone practising the role of a scrum master / an agile coach or similar.