With the various agile retrospective formats, we’re visiting each with a bit more info, and this time around we’re looking at the Sailboat Retrospective.

What is the Sailboat Sprint Retrospective?

This sprint retrospective type is a great way to create a team vision as well as to identify any issues or problems along the way. This is a simple agile retrospective format that involves a little artwork and a lot of discussion. It can be very effective in giving the team a platform to come up with a vision and to understand what problems or issues are impeding this vision.

The Sailboat Retrospective looks like this:

• First, on a whiteboard or large piece of paper, the team leader or organizer of the retrospective draws a sailboat complete with an anchor, rocks, some islands, and wind.
• It is explained that each part of the drawing represents a part of the sprint, in that there are certain factors that slow it down, and others that are the driving force.
• The islands represent the team’s goals and visions. Those should be written down for everyone to see.
• The team is then asked to write down on sticky notes everything from the past sprint that slowed them down and everything that drove them forward. Those are then placed accordingly on the drawing.
• These are discussed and the team votes on the critical items to focus on.
• From there, the team can start root cause analysis and come up with some solutions and outcomes.

What are the Sailboat Sprint Retro format uses?

This retrospective format is especially useful for getting everyone on the same page about visions and goals and they can come up with specific ways to get rid of the problems they faced in the past.

When can the Sailboat Sprint Retrospective be used?

This format is typically used at the end of a sprint to sum up how it went and to begin to create action plans for the upcoming sprints. It is also good to use when it seems like there may be some broken lines of communication or that everyone is not on the same page.

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