Question 1

What is a sprint retrospective?

Accepted Answer

A sprint retrospective is a meeting held at the end of each sprint (typically 1–2 weeks) where the team reflects on how they worked together — not what they built. It covers three questions: What went well? What didn't go well? What will we do differently? The output is a short list of concrete action items that the team commits to in the next sprint. It is one of the most valuable ceremonies in agile, and one of the most frequently skipped.

Question 2

How long should a retrospective take?

Accepted Answer

For a 2-week sprint with a team of 5–8 people, 60–75 minutes is typical. For a 1-week sprint, 45 minutes is usually sufficient. The retrospective should not feel rushed — it is the one ceremony focused entirely on team health and process improvement. If your retros consistently run over time, the most common cause is too many agenda items or no clear timeboxing per section.

Question 3

Who should attend a retrospective?

Accepted Answer

The whole development team (engineers, designers, QA), the Scrum Master (or equivalent facilitator), and the Product Owner. Some teams invite the engineering manager as an observer. Stakeholders and external clients do not typically attend — the retrospective is a safe space for the team to speak honestly. Psychological safety is the single most important factor in retrospective quality.

Question 4

What makes a good action item?

Accepted Answer

A good retro action item is specific, owned by one person, and achievable within the next sprint. "Improve communication" is a bad action item. "Sarah will set up a daily async standup thread in Slack starting Monday" is a good one. Limit yourself to 2–3 action items per retro — teams that generate 10 action items typically complete zero of them.

Question 5

What should teams do if the same issues keep appearing in retros?

Accepted Answer

Recurring themes signal a systemic problem that action items alone cannot fix. When the same issue appears two sprints in a row, escalate it: bring it to the engineering manager, add it to the team's working agreements, or raise it in a dedicated process review outside the retro itself. Using this tool to review past retros side by side makes it easy to spot patterns before they become permanent.

Question 6

Should remote teams run retrospectives differently?

Accepted Answer

The core structure — went well, didn't go well, action items — works for remote teams too. The key differences are: use async pre-writing so people add items before the meeting (reduces groupthink), and keep a visible timer per section. This tool is particularly useful for async-first teams because the structured output can be shared as a PDF summary with teammates across time zones.

Question 7

Can I run a retrospective for a project rather than a sprint?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The sprint retro format works equally well for project retrospectives, post-mortems, and end-of-quarter reviews. Simply use the sprint number field to label the project name or phase. Project retros often run longer (90–120 minutes) and benefit from more detailed "what went well" and "what to improve" sections. The exported summary serves as an institutional memory document.

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