Agile is a framework and every successful framework or for that matter any ecosystem needs to have provisions for self corrections and refinements.

Retrospective meeting provide a forum for the team to get together after the final demo is done to introspect and take the learning into the next sprint. Things that should be typically discussed are

– Did the team cover enough story points

– What could be done or changed in the next sprint so that the velocity of the sprint increases.

– Was there any instances of waiting that can be avoided.

–  What further details ‘Product Owner’ needs to publish upfront so that the time required for clarifications could be minimized.

Retrospective meeting are a great mechanism for Continuous improvement. In my personal experience as a scrum master there has been significant increase in sprint velocity from Sprint 1…. to Sprint n if the learning of the previous sprint are embedded in the future sprints. This is the Objective of a retrospective meeting.

Sprints are tight and the focus is always on accomplishments but remember that ‘final demo’ is not the end of sprint. I have seen many teams seem to close the sprint final doing the final demo. I have seen those teams make the same mistakes again and again. Hope after reading this blog you know when to close your next Sprint.