Virtually all agile efforts in software development incorporate some form of retrospective activity. For organizations new to the practice, they can easily become lengthy, unfocused affairs that fail to deliver on the promise of continuous improvement.

When retrospectves seem to have little value, produce no lasting change, or just create long lists of unrelated work for people to do, they tend to get minimized or cut altogether when time gets tight - the very time when retrospectives are needed the most.

In this session, we'll look at how to optimize your retrospectives to produce actionable, quantifiable results in less time.

What you'll learn:
- The goals/benefits of retrospective efforts that shape what you keep in and what you can get rid of
- The key difference between team self-improvement and individual venting
- Format matters - why the "traditional" retrospective structure almost assures that you will spend a lot of time accomplishing less than you wanted
- Measuring results - is there a way to know your improvement is "working" besides gut feel?