Diana Larsen, FutureWorks Consulting

Traditionally, organizations sponsor project reviews (also known as "post-mortems" or "lessons learned") only after the delivery, when it's too late to make a difference for that project. Particularly in challenging environments, project teams must respond to unexpected change and adapt to difficult circumstances. Agile retrospectives at the end of each iteration or increment compel the team to examine feedback from current conditions and develop targeted tactics to keep the project on track. Agile retrospectives keep team focus on continuous improvement throughout the project, whatever the environment.

Diana Larsen, co-author of Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great!, will introduce you to a simple framework for effective retrospectives, provide tips and pointers for effective retrospectives in challenging environments, and suggest ways to maintain the relevance of improvement to the work of your team.

Project reviews help teams examine what went right and what went wrong on a project. But traditionally, project reviews (also known as "post-mortems" or "lessons learned") are only held at the end of the project, when it's too late to to make a difference. In organizations where teams develop using iterative, incremental methods, Agile retrospectives at the end of each iteration and increment stimulate continuous improvement throughout the project. Exceptional software process and project improvement grows out of the solid data and good planning that form the core of retrospectives.

Diana Larsen, co-author of Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great!, will lead you through an investigation of how retrospectives fit with Agile projects, introduce you to a simple framework for retrospective design, and offer an opportunity to practice designing retrospectives for your team.