Sprint 0 Review and Retrospective #

The review is about the product.

The retrospective is about the process. Make some concrete goals for the next sprint. Instead of “improve communication”, make it something concrete like “We agree to communicate via X and respond within Y time.”

1. What went well in the sprint? #

Our team was able to create a persona from the contextual inquiry of multiple people. Our team was able to get an idea of some future user stories that will need to be completed in the next sprint. Our team was able to setup the project shell and familiarize ourselves with the general workflow. Our team was able to come up with ideas for a mockup UI.

• What motivated us to do it?

  • We did contextual inquiry to be able to make a persona.
  • We set up our project shell in a remote repository and familiarized everyone with the general workflow of the project contribution.

• What did we do differently to make it a success?

  • We took a lot of different input, from other perspectives, to make a convincing persona.
  • We had several meetings to discuss the details of the persona.

• Which training, skill, or knowledge contributed to the difference? Which strong point in you makes it happen?

  • Past IDE and Git experience let us set up our project shell.

• Which strong points of your team that made it happen?

  • Set up a step by step how-to tutorial on how to make sure the project is running correctly.
  • Set up a step by step how-to tutorial on the general workflow for contributing to the project.

2. What went wrong in the Sprint? #

Familiarizing ourselves with Flying Donut took longer than expected.

• How did it go wrong?

  • Navigating the tool wasn’t as intuitive as we thought.
  • The sprint was never actually started and as labelled as “postponed”.

• What did you do that went wrong?

  • We never “started” the sprint because all team members weren’t all joined.
  • We didn’t assign every team member to the skill debt story.

• Were you aware of what you were doing that went wrong?

  • We were aware that learning Flying Donut was taking longer than expected.

• Did you understand it wrong and hence implemented wrong? Did you understand right but still it went wrong?

  • We understood the idea and what Flying Donut is for, however it took a little time to learn how to use it effectively.

• What did we do well?

  • In the end, we figured out Flying Donut enough for it to work for our team.

3. What we had learned in the sprint? #

We learned how to create a persona and do contextual inquiry. We learned how to set up our remote repository for our team. We learned how to set up sprints using Flying Donut. We learned what our project needs to accomplish at a high level. We are learning how to effectively use our meeting time.

• Which techniques were useful?

  • Coming together as a team and meeting on the weekends helped jump start the sprint 0 tasks.
  • Our Discord channel and project-setup guide was useful in making sure that everyone had their IDE setup correctly.

• Which techniques were not useful?

  • Creating the persona wasn’t as useful as we thought.

• What went in a smooth fashion during this sprint?

  • The contextual inquiry went in a smooth fashion.
  • Our remote repository and IDE setup went in a smooth fashion.

• What did not go smooth during this sprint?

  • Backlog setup and user stories.
  • Making sure that our user stories were well refined.
  • Assigning ourselves to user stories/tasks.

• What learning during this Sprint can educate us for the upcoming Sprint?

  • We need to correctly assign ourselves to tasks in the sprint, and make sure we are meeting regularly as an entire team.

4. What should we do differently in the next sprint? #

We need to refine our user stories, and make sure that they are from the perspective of the user, and that they show what the story should accomplish. We need to create more user stories that give shape to the bigger picture of the project.

• How can the strength of the individual be utilized to resolve the issue?

  • As Scrum Master, I’ll make it a point to read our user stories in the backlog every once in a while during a meeting.

• What should be done often to prevent the issue from arising again?

  • Once project development begins, it will be easier to identify user stories that aren’t specific enough.

• Which actions must be implemented immediately for which you have the bandwidth and capability? Identify the 1 thing to be changed and explain how you could change it?

  • During our meetings, we need to identify and create user stories. During our meetings, we will groom the backlog to make sure our user stories fit the bigger picture.

• What strategies will work to complete the job?

  • More backlog grooming, and more team communication.

Corrective actions #

• What will you do in the upcoming Sprint to complete this action? How will you do it to make it a success?

  • During meetings, we will make a point to read and refine our user stories and make sure we have enough tasks for the team.

• When will you do it during the Sprint?

  • The user story refinement needs to be done towards the beginning of the sprint.

• Do you require help to complete this?

  • Our team feels confident in our ability to better refine our backlog.

• What additional support do you require?

  • If our team needs additional support, online tutorials would help.

• How will you let me know that you completed it?

  • Our sprint backlog will be better refined, and documented on Flying Donut.

• What will you do next after accomplishing this during the Sprint?

  • We will have a good idea on how to setup the next sprint from what we learned during this one.