There are so many Agile retrospective meeting formats to choose from. Let’s look at the different sprint retrospective ideas and types and talk a little about each.

Start-Stop-Continue Sprint Retrospective

The Start-Stop-Continue Sprint Retro is oriented around action and encourages team members to collaborate and come up with ideas for team improvement. The structure of these meetings is broken up into three parts including start (what they should start doing in next sprint), stop (stop doing), and continue (what they should continue doing).

What Went Well? What Didn’t Go Well? Retrospective Format

What went well - what didn't go well agile retrospective format focuses on the team’s strengths and weaknesses and can be used to figure out a plan of action according to what works and what doesn’t. Two posters are put up and each team member writes down things that went well and didn’t go well and they are then put onto the coordinating poster. The team discusses each one.

Mad-Sad-Glad Sprint Retro

The Mad-Sad-Glad sprint retrospective idea encourages team members to look at their emotional journey throughout the previous sprint by listing things that perhaps made them mad or irritated them, things that disappointed or upset them, and things that made them happy during the project. It is a great way to focus on the perspective of the development team as a whole.

Lean Coffee Retrospective

The Lean Coffee agile retrospective format is structured but does not include an agenda because the members of the meeting build an agenda at the beginning. This is a good way to do things because it ensures everyone is on the same page and that all topics that team members want to cover will be covered. Team members come up with ideas about the topics they want to cover, vote (perhaps using a dot vote) on the priority of the topics, and then discuss.

Sailboat Sprint Retrospective

The Sailboat retrospective format is a simple and creative retro idea. A sailboat is drawn with its sails, its anchor, some rocks, some clouds, and a few islands. The anchor is everything that slows the team down or holds them back. The clouds and wind represent everything that is helping them move forward. The islands represent future goals and visions. The rocks represent risks they might have to take to reach those island goals. It is a nice, visual way to break things down.

4Ls Agile Retrospective

The 4Ls sprint retrospective idea includes the 4Ls - Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed for. The team is given the opportunity to share things under each of these categories from the previous sprint.

Oscar Academy Awards Retro Format

Oscar Academy Awards agile retrospective is exactly what it sounds like. Team members are nominated for different awards such as communication, leadership, etc. Also, stories are nominated and voted on for best story, worst story, etc. This is a good way to motivate the team to keep doing a great job.

Iteration Agile Retrospective Idea

The Iteration retrospective format involves reviewing the past sprint both quantitatively and qualitatively. By looking at both things, the team is able to decide what worked and what didn’t, as well as come up with realistic goals and actions for the next sprint.

Remote Retrospective Idea

The Remote Sprint Retrospective idea is simply a format that is available remotely so that teams can meet no matter where they are!

Choosing the right format for your team is important. In the next article, we will talk about how to choose the retrospective format that is perfect for you and your team.

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