Data-Driven End of Project Retrospective

An end of project retrospective is a valuable tool for evaluating the success of a project and identifying areas for improvement. It provides an opportunity for team members to reflect on their experiences and to learn from the project outcomes.

Setup

With the increase in recent years of online facilitation tooling, there is a wealth of reflection points, raised in retrospectives. This data can then be easily accessible and searchable for review and analysis. Having a centralised and organised history of retrospective points can help teams keep track of their progress, identify trends, and continually improve their processes.

Each past retrospective point was categorised; if they were positive or negative, and a theme to group them into.

This data was then used to create the following table with positive = 1 point, neutral = 0 and negative = -1 point:

This was plotted onto a bubble diagram for frequency and positivity with each bubble representing a theme. The more positive something was the higher and greener it would be and the more frequent a topic came up in the retro the larger and further right it would be.

The Retro

The retrospective started in a similar format to what the team are used to. There were 6 categories to contribute to and everyone had 10 minutes to share their reflections on the project as a whole.

Once the time was up and everyone had contributed the pre-prepared bubble graph was revealed and everyone worked as a team to move the stickies created in the retrospective onto the theme that represented it the best.

How It Went / Key Outcomes:

Being a team of developers technology was a favourite area both during sprint retrospectives and in the end of project retrospective. This theme gave us a few outputs; what would we not use again if given the choice and what did we find of value to replicate in Ashiba.

During the sprint retrospectives, there were a lot of negative points and grumbling about a specific integration or system. Interestingly none of them came up at the end of the project retro. On reflection, although these things can be tricky or tedious everyone understands that’s why we’re here and what we do best!

This also gave us the chance to reflect on the success of the project and everything achieved during this short period. We all closed the door on the current project and was a great start to kick of end of project celebrations within the team.

Conclusion

In conclusion, end of project retrospectives are an essential tool for reflecting on past projects and identifying areas for improvement. By analysing successes and failures, teams can learn from their experiences and make changes that lead to better outcomes in future projects. It's important to encourage open and honest feedback and to involve all team members in the retrospective process. Regular retrospectives can also help build a culture of continuous learning and improvement within an organization. By taking the time to reflect and make changes, teams can ensure they are making the most of their resources and delivering the best possible results.