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With detailed scenarios, imaginative illustrations, and step-by-step instructions, consultant and speaker Norman L. Kerth guides readers through productive, empowering retrospectives of project performance.
Whether your shop calls them postmortems or postpartums or something else, project retrospectives offer organizations a formal method for preserving the valuable lessons learned from the successes and failures of every project. These lessons and the changes identified by the community will foster stronger teams and savings on subsequent efforts.
For a retrospective to be effective and successful, though, it needs to be safe. Kerth shows facilitators and participants how to defeat the fear of retribution and establish an air of mutual trust. One tool is Kerth's Prime Directive: Regardless of what we discover, we must understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job he or she could, given what was known at the time, his or her skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.
Applying years of experience as a project retrospective facilitator for software organizations, Kerth reveals his secrets for managing the sensitive, often emotionally charged issues that arise as teams relive and learn from each project.
Save Your Software from the Start: Overcoming Skewed Thinking in the Project Planning Stage
Selling a Project Retrospective
Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 3 and Index)
Foreword xiii
Preface xv
Chapter 1: Introduction to Retrospectives 1
THE NEED FOR RITUAL 4
NAMING THE PROCESS 5
PRIME DIRECTIVE FOR A RETROSPECTIVE 7
THE DARKER SIDE OF RETROSPECTIVES 8
THE RETROSPECTIVE FACILITATOR 10
Chapter 2: Anatomy of a Retrospective: A Case Study 13
THE SAMPLE RETROSPECTIVE 13
PREPARING FOR THE RETROSPECTIVE 14
THE RETROSPECTIVE PLAN 16
RETROSPECTIVE DAY 1 18
RETROSPECTIVE DAY 2 25
RETROSPECTIVE DAY 3 28
PREPARING FOR THE FACILITATOR’S JOB 32
Chapter 3: Engineering a Retrospective: Making Choices 35
ENGINEERING A RETROSPECTIVE 37
WHO SHOULD ATTEND THE RETROSPECTIVE? 47
WHERE SHOULD THE RETROSPECTIVE BE HELD? 49
WHEN SHOULD THE RETROSPECTIVE BE HELD? 52
HOW LONG SHOULD A RETROSPECTIVE BE? 53
Chapter 4: Selling a Retrospective 57
UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET FOR RETROSPECTIVE SALES 59
SELLING IS OKAY 62
EFFECTIVE SELLING REQUIRES LISTENING 64
Chapter 5: Preparing for a Retrospective 67
CONNECT WITH THE MANAGERS 69
MAP THE COMMUNITY 73
COLLECT EFFORT DATA 76
READY THE TEAM 84
WHEN TO GET THE LEGAL DEPARTMENT INVOLVED 90
TRACK DETAILS WITH A CHECKLIST 91
WHEN TO ARRIVE FOR THE RETROSPECTIVE 93
Chapter 6: Retrospective Exercises 95
THE EXERCISES 99
DESIGNING A RETROSPECTIVE MEAL 165
Chapter 7: Leading a Postmortem 171
THE CHALLENGER STORY 174
TRANSFORMING THE FAILED-PROJECT EXPERIENCE 175
QUALIFYING TO LEAD A POSTMORTEM 186
SOME IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RETROSPECTIVES AND
POSTMORTEMS 186
Chapter 8: Postmortem Exercises 189
THE EXERCISES 190
Chapter 9: On Becoming a Skilled Retrospective Facilitator 209
SIX LESSONS 211
UNDERSTANDING THE FACILITATOR’S PROCEDURES 220
Chapter 10: After the Retrospective 249
RETROSPECTIVE REPORTS 252
COLLECTING RETROSPECTIVE REPORTS 253
KEEPING THEWISDOM ALIVE 256
A SECURE LOCATION 258
CONDUCT A RETROSPECTIVE OF YOUR RETROSPECTIVE 259
A SECURE LOCATION 258
CONDUCT A RETROSPECTIVE OF YOUR RETROSPECTIVE 259
COLLECTING RETROSPECTIVES-OF-RETROSPECTIVES REPORTS 261
Index 263