Recently I conducted an iteration Retrospective for one of the Scrum teams which resulted in a good discussion. The feedback helped in making some specific decisions for the team. These decisions had to be communicated to management as this team decided to do things a bit differently than other teams.
One question raised by management was if the Retrospective notes could be shared with everyone in the organization?
According to me, Retrospective is a private meeting that the team conducts within itself. If retrospectives are conducted correctly, the team will show you exactly "what went well" and should be continued and also "what did not go well" and needs improvements. The "what did not go well" session could result in some heated and healthy arguments at times even with good facilitation. The question is, should this be shared outside this team? I guess, not. But at the same time, the things going well should be shared with the outside forum. Firstly to encourage and praise the team, and secondly so other teams can benefit from their experiences.
But, what about things not going well? Should they be shared? My advice is, anything that could impact the team's performance or demotivate them, should be avoided at any cost. The notes can be shared, but should be filtered if it's going to be public knowledge. At the same time, management should be informed about the challenges the teams are facing and improvements the team plans to put in place. This way, management can help remove any roadblocks or impediments.
Thoughts?
2 comments:
My perspective is that as long as the team's expectations are set correctly, anything the team and the organization wants are fair game.
What you have to avoid is having the team think the conversation is private and then making it public (or having an implicit understanding that the scrum master reports the results to senior management and then the scrum master just keeps it private, I guess). The problem is when it's not clear up front and then management is asking for the info.
As with a lot of this stuff, I think the answer lies in being flexible and transparent and working with integrity.
I second your thoughts Dave. Can't agree more.
Thanks,
-Hiren
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