Values Driven Retrospective

I am back with yet another retrospective technique that I have tried with my team. I named this technique as Values Drive Retrospective. In this article, I will explain how I used this technique and what are the benefits. 

Hiren Doshi stated in his book Scrum Insights for Practitioners “The Scrum pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation come to life and build trust for everyone when the Scrum values are embodied and lived by everyone. The Scrum values are courage, focus, commitment, respect, and openness.” 

Did anyone try to find out, why do we need these values at all? Why can’t we just have Sprints and Scrum ceremonies, isn’t that enough? 

I don’t think so. Scrum isn’t just for the meetings. It’s a complete philosophy, an attitude, an ethos, and a culture. It’s a mode of interaction between people that fosters ownership, innovation, and high performance. 

If we analyze there are dozens of interactions between scrum team members every day and week during the sprint which aren’t defined in the Scrum Guide. This is where Scrum Values play their role and provide us an approach on how to involve in those interactions. 

Gunther Verheyen has captured the values very well on his blog: “Although not invented as a part of Scrum, or exclusive to Scrum, these values give direction to our work, our behavior and our actions. In a Scrum context the decisions we take, the steps we take, the way we play Scrum, the practices we add to Scrum, the activities we surround Scrum with should re-enforce these values, not diminish or undermine them.” 

The purpose of this retrospective is to honestly, openly, and respectfully inspect the presence or absence of the Scrum Values and identify possible improvements for the adaption in the upcoming sprints. 

Starting Point 

This retrospective can be used when the team has completed several sprints. Start the meeting by covering the 3 pillars and the 5 values. Ask the team what each value means for them. Ask them not to mention what they are following or practicing but really what this value is meant to be for a Scrum Team. 

We analyze two aspects of values adherence in the retrospective. First is value adoption at the team level and second is to check how individuals are practicing/following the values in daily routine. 

How to set up for the retrospective 

Retrospective can be conducted on the whiteboard or you can use excel for the purpose as well. I have used the whiteboard. Draw a table and write all the values in the table header and name of team members in the left-most column.  

Values adherence at the team level 

The first question will be to ask the team members to evaluate how values are adopted collectively as a team. Rate from 0 to 5, (0 for the lowest and 5 for the highest). Provide the team members with sticky notes and ask them to rate each value and put it under the values written on the board. 

Values adoption individually 

The second question will be to ask members to rate how values are adopted/practiced individually. Rating would be from worst to the best. 0 for the worst and 5 for the best. The purpose of this is to inspect the values that we could adopt easily and identify the ones we faced difficulty applying to us. 

Result 

The exercise above provides a good opportunity to inspect the Scrum Values in the team. Sum up the scores for each exercise and visualize as you like. I have used excel to take the average and generate the radar graph to show the result. 

If we see the results, there is clearly an indication of the difference between values adoption at the team and individual level. So, we have a good opportunity for inspection and adaptation. Discuss each value with the team and come up with at least one concrete action that is hurting the team or individual the most. Pick this point as an improvement for the next sprint. 

Conclusion

A team’s success with Scrum depends on five values. One of the benefits of this retrospective would be a forced inspection of openness in the team and an evaluation of how honest with itself the team feels. 

It is important for you as a facilitator to remind these values to the team more often. I personally use the words commitment, focus, openness, courage, and respect in the ceremonies and in daily life events so that the team can relate these scenarios and occasions with the scrum values. 

Credits:

‘Scrum Insights for Practitioners’ by Hiren Doshi

There's value in the scrum values by Gunther Verheyen

The Scrum Values Explored by Dan Ray

https://luis-goncalves.com/

Scrum Values Retrospective by scrumandmorecom

https://www.scrum.org/