Retrospective Facilitation: A Simple Hack to Go from Good to Great

TL; DR: Retrospective Facilitation — Going from Good to 🦄 Great

The magic technique to turn a boring Retrospective into an outstanding Retrospective is the rotation of the facilitator role equally among all team members. Check out the following ten benefits of this Retrospective facilitation practice, from boosting learning and skill development to ensuring continuity to encouraging ownership.

Retrospective Facilitation: A Simple Hack to Go from Good to Great — Age-of-Product.com
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ChatGPT 4: A Bargain for Scrum Practitioners?

TL; DR: ChatGPT 4: A Bargain for Scrum Practitioners?

When OpenAI released its new LLM model GPT-4 last week, I could not resist and signed up for $20 monthly. I wanted to determine whether ChatGPT 4 is superior to its predecessor, which left a good impression in recent months; see my previous articles on Scrum, Agile, and ChatGPT.

I decided to run three comparisons, using the identical prompt to trigger answers from the new GPT-4 and previous GPT-3.5 models. Read on and learn what happened. It was not a foregone conclusion.

ChatGPT 4: A Bargain for Scrum Practitioners? — Age-of-Product.com
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Retrospective First Principles

TL; DR: Retrospective First Principles

What is your take on the Retrospective: A routine exercise at the end of a Sprint, supported by standard operating procedures? Or a critical part of a Scrum team’s journey of continuous improvement? As you may assume, I advocate for the latter. In my experience, Scrum teams start utilizing Retrospectives to their full potential when they embrace a short set of Retrospective first principles, outlining the essence of the Why, the What, and the How.

Retrospective First Principles — Age-of-Product.com

For classic nerds: “Molon labe (Ancient Greek: μολὼν λαβέ, romanized: molṑn labé), meaning ‘come and take [them][…]’

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Prisoners of Retrospectives — Making Your Scrum Work #24

TL; DR: Prisoners of Retrospectives

There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Given that Scrum is a framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone. What if, for example, not all of your Scrum team’s members feel enthusiastic about the Sprint Retrospective, the critical event when the Scrum team inspects itself? How can you help them become dedicated supporters instead? Join me and delve into how to avoid teammates feeling like prisoners of Retrospectives in less than two minutes.

Prisoners of Retrospectives — Making Your Scrum Work #24 —Age-of-Product.com
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21 Sprint Retrospective Anti-Patterns Impeding Scrum Teams

TL; DR: Sprint Retrospective Anti-Patterns

What event could better embody Scrum’s principle of empiricism than the Sprint Retrospective? I assume all peers agree that even the simplest form of a Retrospective—if only held regularly—is far more helpful than having a fancy one once in a while, not to mention having none. Moreover, I am convinced there is always room for improvement; just avoid dogmatism. Hence, learn more about 21 common Sprint Retrospective anti-patterns that will hold back your Scrum team.

Sprint Retrospective Anti-Patterns —  Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide – Age-of-Product.com
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Should Managers Attend Retrospectives? — Making Your Scrum Work #19

TL; DR: Should Managers Attend Retrospectives?

There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Given that Scrum is a framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone. A classic discussion is whether it is appropriate that (line) managers attend the Retrospectives of the Scrum team. Probably, making their attendance a regular habit—or even a requirement—is not a good idea. However, what about managers that occasionally attend a Retrospective? Moreover, what if the (line) manager is also a team member?

Join me and delve into the how and when of managers attending Retrospectives in less than two minutes.

Should Managers Attend Retrospectives? — Making Your Scrum Work #19 — Age-of-Product.com
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