Implementing Action Items Over Improving the Format of Retros
Yen Ying Ng, Ryszard Kuduk · 2024
The Sprint Retrospective serves as a practice for continuous process improvement. Despite its widespread adoption, achieving effective retros remains challenging. Recent studies suggest that setting up a retro in the form of a collaborative game may mitigate common retrospective problems. Consequently, we implemented this approach in two Scrum teams at Carrier Poland, which had exhibited limited enthusiasm for their retros. Unfortunately, the observed benefits were considerably more modest compared to the results of previous studies. Our key conclusion is that without active involvement in implementing action items, improvements will not materialize, regardless of the meeting format. Hence, future work should focus on developing strategies for the implementation of action items.