Few Bother to Attend
Some Scrum teams take an unenthusiastic approach to the sprint retrospective. For example, the product owner we mentioned at the beginning of this chapter attended the sprint review but not the sprint retrospective. That was a big missed opportunity, as the retrospective would have been the opportune time for the PO to talk to the development team about how to mitigate future stakeholder surprises. Similar problems may pop up if development team members don’t attend the retrospective.
The sprint retrospective is an activity for the whole Scrum team. It should include all development team members, the product owner, and the Scrum master—every time. The only way the team can improve is if the whole team engages in this event. Dysfunction cannot be fixed when there is only partial attendance.
Also, keep in mind that this event is for the Scrum team only. When stakeholders or managers outside the team attend, that makes it harder for the team to effectively collaborate. It’s hard enough to get a group of people from different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences to collaborate. Adding another layer of difficulty doesn’t help.
Consider the reason behind the sprint retrospective: You’re meeting to inspect the way the Scrum team works together, as team members strive to deliver a done increment of product by the end of the sprint. The adaptations (a.k.a. improvements) that the team agrees upon and commits to during the retrospective can help the team deliver value to customers more quickly.
You should also use the sprint retrospective to consider quality. Discuss the current definition of done and decide whether it needs to be modified based on what you learned about your product during the sprint review.
If the entire team isn’t present for these discussions, you could lose transparency in the way you’re working; any experiments that you try might not get the intended results. So get your entire Scrum team to attend the retrospective.
It should always happen after the sprint review but before the next sprint planning. That’s because, if you haven’t inspected the increment and how you’re collaborating with stakeholders, then you haven’t fully inspected the sprint. This can lead to adaptations that aren’t appropriate for your situation.
As far as duration, The Scrum Guide states that a sprint retrospective time box is a maximum of three hours for a one-month sprint. Adjust that time box accordingly based on your sprint length.