DevOps.com

  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Features
    • Most Read
    • News
    • News Releases
  • Topics
    • AI
    • Continuous Delivery
    • Continuous Testing
    • Cloud
    • Culture
    • DevSecOps
    • Enterprise DevOps
    • Leadership Suite
    • DevOps Practice
    • ROELBOB
    • DevOps Toolbox
    • IT as Code
  • Videos/Podcasts
    • DevOps Chats
    • DevOps Unbound
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming
    • On-Demand Webinars
  • Library
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • On-Demand Events
  • Sponsored Communities
    • AWS Community Hub
    • CloudBees
    • IT as Code
    • Rocket on DevOps.com
    • Traceable on DevOps.com
    • Quali on DevOps.com
  • Related Sites
    • Techstrong Group
    • Container Journal
    • Security Boulevard
    • Techstrong Research
    • DevOps Chat
    • DevOps Dozen
    • DevOps TV
    • Digital Anarchist
  • Media Kit
  • About
  • AI
  • Cloud
  • Continuous Delivery
  • Continuous Testing
  • DevSecOps
  • DevOps Onramp
  • Practices
  • ROELBOB
  • Low-Code/No-Code
  • IT as Code
  • More
    • Application Performance Management/Monitoring
    • Culture
    • Enterprise DevOps

Home » Blogs » Don’t Cancel the Retrospective

Don’t Cancel the Retrospective

By: contributor on November 23, 2016 Leave a Comment

Not too long ago, I noticed a lot of teams rescheduling or cancelling retrospectives. Sometimes it was because key people were going to be out of office. Sometimes it was because a major deliverable was due and everyone was crazy stressed. Sometimes it was because the project wasn’t as far along as they thought it would be, and they wanted to wait for more data. In each case, the retrospective was cancelled only because of something deemed completely logical and understandable.

Recent Posts By contributor
  • How to Ensure DevOps Success in a Distributed Network Environment
  • Dissecting the Role of QA Engineers and Developers in Functional Testing
  • DevOps Primer: Using Vagrant with AWS
More from contributor
Related Posts
  • Don’t Cancel the Retrospective
  • Psychological Theories Behind Agile Software Development
  • DevOps and Collaboration: Fraternizing with the Enemy?
    Related Categories
  • Blogs
    Related Topics
  • agile
  • developers
  • group discussion
  • meeting
  • retrospective
Show more
Show less

But it bothered me a lot.

AppSec/API Security 2022

I turned to the internet to back me up—to give me some context as to why retros never should be moved or cancelled that I could then send out triumphantly to our teams—but instead I found a dearth of thinking on retro cadence and scheduling. Denied the collective wisdom of the internet, I was forced to look inward to better understand why these scheduling changes bothered me so much. Is it just that I’m a compulsive rule follower who can’t handle change? That’s always a possibility worth examining. Were there things I wanted out of these retrospectives and was annoyed to have delayed? Not exactly, since I wasn’t actually participating in any of them, but that was a bit closer to the reason.

As a manager, one of the things I read over and over is to never cancel a one-on-one meeting with a direct report. If you have to reschedule, it should be as close as possible to the original time. Rescheduling and cancelling one-on-ones is a sign to your reports that spending time with them is not important to you, and should be avoided if you actually respect your colleagues.

The retrospective feels the same way to me. The person who reschedules it is probably a product manager or a tech lead, dutifully reviewing the schedule for the team and realizing there might be a problem. He or she invariably sends a message to the effect of, “Hey guys, this seems like a really bad time—anyone mind if we move it to next week?”

Which of you would raise your hand and say it’s not OK? I’m a pretty forceful person, and I’m not sure I would. It’s a tall order to demand the time of the whole team.

So, what’s the big deal about retrospectives anyway? Are we all beholden to the Agile Manifesto, following the pattern just because it says to? I really hope not, and I can say from my experience some of the best innovations on my team have come from retros. To me, a retrospective is like a one-on-one for the whole team, and can serve the same purpose.

These are my favorite things about the retrospective format:

  • Enforced thinking time. We all spend our days running at top speed, and taking 15 minutes at the start of a meeting just to think about a topic is incredibly valuable. Taking time before the meeting would be even more impactful, but, baby steps.
  • Individual contributions. The format encourages every single member to contribute to the discussion. The mix of written and verbal discussion affords avenues for people with different communication styles to all have their feedback heard.
  • Venting. In the same way that sometimes a one-on-one needs to be a blow-off-steam session, group venting in a retro can be cathartic—and much healthier than silent stewing.
  • Pulse-taking. Teams are most healthy when every member has things to say, positive or negative, and is willing to discuss them out loud with the group.

While it’s helpful to understand why retrospectives are so vital for the health of your team, it still doesn’t explain why it’s such a big deal to reschedule. Well, maybe it isn’t. You are not likely to get great thoughtful ideas out of people who are stressed out and are staring at their laptops the entire time. On the other hand, if it happens a lot, it can send a message that the team doesn’t value retrospecting (and probably also is oversubscribed).

I found that just reminding teams that retrospectives are a first-class calendar system was enough to effect positive change. When push came to shove, my team wasn’t deprioritizing retros, but we realized that we were actually just in a format rut, so we decided to try the sailboat retrospective. Pro tip: It’s more fun if you add pirates.

About the Author/ Cat Miller

catmillerCat Miller is senior software engineer at Flatiron Health. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Master of Engineering degree in Computer Science, both from MIT. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

 

 

Filed Under: Blogs Tagged With: agile, developers, group discussion, meeting, retrospective

Sponsored Content
Featured eBook
The State of Open Source Vulnerabilities 2020

The State of Open Source Vulnerabilities 2020

Open source components have become an integral part of today’s software applications — it’s impossible to keep up with the hectic pace of release cycles without them. As open source usage continues to grow, so does the number of eyes focused on open source security research, resulting in a record-breaking ... Read More
« Felonies and Misdemeanors
The Truth Troll »

TechStrong TV – Live

Click full-screen to enable volume control
Watch latest episodes and shows

Upcoming Webinars

Code Tampering: Four Keys to Pipeline Integrity
Wednesday, August 17, 2022 - 1:00 pm EDT
The ROI of Integration: Must-Have Capabilities to Maximize Efficiency and Communication
Thursday, August 18, 2022 - 11:00 am EDT
Best Practices For Writing Secure Terraform
Thursday, August 18, 2022 - 3:00 pm EDT

Latest from DevOps.com

Contrast Security Adds API Support to Security Platform
August 16, 2022 | Mike Vizard
Avoiding Security Review Delays
August 16, 2022 | Waqas Nazir
Building a Platform for DevOps Evolution, Part One
August 16, 2022 | Bob Davis
Techstrong TV: Leveraging Low-Code Technology with Tools & Digital Transformation
August 15, 2022 | Mitch Ashley
Five Great DevOps Job Opportunities
August 15, 2022 | Mike Vizard

GET THE TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK

Download Free eBook

The Automated Enterprise
The Automated Enterprise

Most Read on DevOps.com

MLOps Vs. DevOps: What’s the Difference?
August 10, 2022 | Gilad David Maayan
We Must Kill ‘Dinosaur’ JavaScript | Microsoft Open Sources ...
August 11, 2022 | Richi Jennings
What GitHub’s 2FA Mandate Means for Devs Everywhere
August 11, 2022 | Doug Kersten
CloudNativeDay: WASM to Drive Next IT Epoch
August 10, 2022 | Mike Vizard
The Benefits of a Distributed Cloud
August 12, 2022 | Jonathan Seelig

On-Demand Webinars

DevOps.com Webinar ReplaysDevOps.com Webinar Replays
  • Home
  • About DevOps.com
  • Meet our Authors
  • Write for DevOps.com
  • Media Kit
  • Sponsor Info
  • Copyright
  • TOS
  • Privacy Policy

Powered by Techstrong Group, Inc.

© 2022 ·Techstrong Group, Inc.All rights reserved.