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10th out of 85 books
—
30 voters
Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great
by
Esther Derby (Goodreads Author),
Diana Larsen (Goodreads Author), Ken Schwaber
See how to mine the experience of your software development team continually throughout the life of the project. The tools and recipes in this book will help you uncover and solve hidden (and not-so-hidden) problems with your technology, your methodology, and those difficult "people" issues on your team.
Project retrospectives help teams examine what went right and what wen...more
Project retrospectives help teams examine what went right and what wen...more
Paperback, 170 pages
Published
August 2nd 2006
by Pragmatic Bookshelf
(first published July 26th 2006)
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I had heard such good things about this book that I ended up being a little disappointed.
Esther Derby has a specific approach for retrospectives, and she describes it well. It's not a bad read, but somehow it felt lacking anyhow. There were times when she focused on a part of her approach that I didn't feel that I needed (e.g. working agreements) and I felt like the book spent too much time in the weeds. Then there were times that she glossed over something that I'd like more advice on (like top...more
Esther Derby has a specific approach for retrospectives, and she describes it well. It's not a bad read, but somehow it felt lacking anyhow. There were times when she focused on a part of her approach that I didn't feel that I needed (e.g. working agreements) and I felt like the book spent too much time in the weeds. Then there were times that she glossed over something that I'd like more advice on (like top...more
Any worthwhile activity, either personal or professional, that consumes your time is worth learning from -- or at least that's my opinion. Retrospectives are a way of looking back at past activities and asking yourself "what went well and what should be changed". When you fold in the dynamics of teams these simple questions are not as easy to answer. Different people, different perspectives, different memories.
Agile Retrospectives is an indispensable resource for beginner to seasoned retrospect...more
Agile Retrospectives is an indispensable resource for beginner to seasoned retrospect...more
This is a good overview of retrospective reviews. It is directed more at someone trying to bootstrap an agile process or fix a broken one. But it can also be useful for someone looking for fresh ingredients to add to a more established situation. The suggested team exercises sometimes come across as a bit more touchy-feely than I (or my team) are comfortable with. And the cheerful tone got a bit tiresome.
On the other hand, all that is exactly what I expected in a book like this. I was able to ea...more
On the other hand, all that is exactly what I expected in a book like this. I was able to ea...more
This is a great book to get you started with retrospectives, understanding the mental process underlying the structure of retrospectives and also to start setting up your own retrospectives depending on topic/goal. Pretty soon after reading and experimenting with the exercises mentioned in the book I was able to create my own depending on the goal for the retrospective. So while being a good cook book with several recipies (the exercises) it is also a good base to start building your skills &...more
The basic idea of the book is good, and lays out some thoughts on what is essentially a process of mastery for a small, "agile" team. I picked up a few good ideas that I can use, but overall it wasn't quite what I was expecting. (Of course, I'm not really sure what I was expecting.) It was very specific to agile software development teams, so maybe that was the problem I had with it.
If you work on a team like that, I think this book would be a good one to add to your reading list.
If you work on a team like that, I think this book would be a good one to add to your reading list.
A cookbook with specific techniques that help agile teams to carry out more effective retrospectives. The text is extremely concise and has some examples that will help implement the techniques shown in the book. However, unlike other books related to agile methodologies, this paper describes only a couple of lines for the purpose of a given technique, so it is suitable for beginners, but for those who want to explore more on each topic, you must resort to other sources.
The Retrospective Goddesses provide a well organized soup to nuts plan for conducting iteration, release and project retrospectives. The book is chalk full of activities for co-located teams, complete with tips. My only complaint is there wasn't a single word about distributed teams. Although some of the activities may be usable with some jury-rigging, in today's global environment, it was a glaring omission. Ladies, we need another book!
"A great compilation that covers a range of applications of retrospectives - structuring them, covering the pitfalls and providing a variety of techniques to make them effective in different situations. Retros are a must for anyone who wants to deliver a good product - in an agile manner, or otherwise."
Unfortunately the book couldn't provide the helpful information I expected after reading so many good reviews. The authors describe lots of tasks that might be a good idea but I don't think they would work with my team because a) our retrospective are way shorter than the ones those exercises are intented for and b) not all exercises you could do with Americans somehow wouldn't work with Austrian ppl and c) some exercises try to analyze things that don't need analyzation in our case.
But maybe I...more
But maybe I...more
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If you need help with Agile Retrospectives, this is the book for you. It sets the stage for an easily repeatable retro format as well as many exercises that will help generate the necessary thought process for each step of the way.
Agile retrospectives are a great way to continuously improve your way of working. Getting actions out of a retrospective that are doable, and getting them done helps teams to learn and improve. This book helped me to develop and improve the way I do retrospectives, and to do agile retrospectives that are delivering value to the business.
This book can help you to improve the way you do retrospectives with Agile / Scrum. A lot of practical information on how to organize an run retrospectives, and...more
This book can help you to improve the way you do retrospectives with Agile / Scrum. A lot of practical information on how to organize an run retrospectives, and...more
One of my favorite tools for great retrospectives. I still pull it out as a reminder of the general structure and example exercises.
Well structured and relevant for anyone who works with small groups.
Well structured and relevant for anyone who works with small groups.
A useful and handy book which each team should have !
Read more details about this book at
http://bookwormsrecos.blogspot.in/201...
Read more details about this book at
http://bookwormsrecos.blogspot.in/201...
Do you work with teams, any team? Like agile development or traditional? Or in manufacturing or basketball or church or a family? If so, read this book and apply it's information!
Great book, with lot of examples. I also recommend to hava a look at http://tastycupcakes.org for a lot more agile games.
Very helpful book - a quick read at first, but then a great toolkit for running retrospectives. Well described with real-world examples. Helps every agile coach.
Has been recommended to me for useful ideas in running retrospectives.
This is "the" book about retrospectives, read it!
have some good ideas, but too much noise
ı have wonder about this book
Good, useful, great reference for activities that can be used during retrospectives.
This is a completely indispensable book for a ScrumMaster. Bar none, this is the guide to planning retrospectives.
Even if you're not doing agile, this book has good ideas for how to help make your retrospectives better. I imagine I'll bump it up a star after I actually start using the activities and can evaluate how effective they are.
If you're doing software development, you absolutely should read this book. If you're doing other sorts of projects, then you probably should, too. Portland's lucky to have Diana Larsen living right here.
Would be great if I could try it or experience it in practice. I believe the listed techniques are useful when it comes to get understanding what happened and taking action to make changes.
Good as a list of activities for retrospectives, but very little in here applies to a distributed team. It might be more useful to a non-distributed team.
This is great food for thought.
** On hold temporarily. I'll get back to it in a week or two - as soon as my Christmas books are done. **
** On hold temporarily. I'll get back to it in a week or two - as soon as my Christmas books are done. **
If you are running agile retrospectives you need to read this book. If you are not running retrospectives what are you waiting for?
A must have for Agile teams. I refer to it often. Retrospectives provide teams the best way to inspect and adapt.
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