Speed kills - Agility for IT professionals

I did not intend to write an article specific about retrospectives as part of this series - however I couldn’t help it after today’s experience. I haven’t been to a yoga class in ages and was surprised when at least two thirds of the attendants left the minute the last posture was finished.

Integrate what you have just done

Traditionally the last pose however is Savasana - the final relaxation. Its purpose is to integrate and assimilate what was just practiced - both on a conscious and unconscious level. It is up to the practitioner how long he/she will stay in this pose - usually between 5-15 minutes. Today’s experience makes me think that the benefits of these pauses to reflect and assimilate are apparently not well understood - and hence considered to be nonessential.

The same is potentially true to retrospectives - the Savasana of an agile project. Common reservations include “No time for that” or “It costs too much (all team members are tied up for 1-2 hours)” - totally neglecting the benefits of continuous process improvement and the potential to deal with conflict before it becomes a blowup. After all, if you knew at the beginning of the week what you know now, how much time could you have saved? Why would you not want to learn from this past experience and save the time this week?

So I encourage you to integrate retrospectives in your iterations and at the end of projects! The structure of a retrospective is pretty much open. Don’t shy away from addressing emotional issues in them as well - particularly during projects. Bring out reservations, enthusiasm, resentments - find out what is close to the heart of the team. Only then you can deal with it!

The Agile Yoga

1. The Agile Yoga
2. The Agile Drushti
3. Intermezzo - The art of retrospectives
4. The Agile Asana
5. The Agile Vinyasa (coming soon)
6. The Agile Bandhas (coming soon)
7. The Agile Pranayama (coming soon)

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