Sprint retrospective – inspecting and adapting processes and teamwork

Many people don't realize that the sprint retrospective was not a part of Scrum originally. It was not a part of Ken's first book but was included as a part of his second as a bona fide step in the framework reportedly based on influences in 2001 by Norm Kerth, Diana Larsen, and Esther Derby.

The retrospective is the time and place dedicated to process improvement; in other words, it is a focused space for the team to think about how the last sprint went, what worked well, what needs improvement, and collectively what they will do to change it for the next sprint. A team discusses anything that may be relevant, whether it's a technical impediment that challenged the team, such as CI, test automation, and so on; organizational impediments; a misbehaving ScrumMaster; behavioral and social challenges; and issues preventing collaborative teamwork. The retrospective is not a time for inspecting people and finger pointing, but...