From anecdotes to facts: The first annual agile retrospectives report

There are several Agile retrospective quotes that have stuck with me over the years. These retrospective quotes range from the importance of retrospectives as the real catalyst for continuous improvement in scrum to the fact that people struggle with holding effective retrospectives so much that the decision is often made to no longer have retrospectives. And the challenges teams face in retrospectives are just as varied.

I’m telling you this not as a way to commiserate about retrospectives, but to underscore another finding -  the success, failure and challenges of retrospectives is all anecdotal. Sure, there are countless stories about what works, what doesn’t work or just the general sentiment that “hey, we’re retrospecting!... at the end of the project.” All of it is based on exchanged experiences and stories.

We’re setting out to change that.

Today, we’re launching the First Annual Agile Retrospectives Report aimed at putting real data and numbers behind retrospectives. Our goal is to not only understand who is using retrospectives and how but also what makes retrospectives a meaningful, powerful tool in continuously improving the way we work.

We want to hear from you. If you’ve ever participated in a retrospective - or even thought about it but decided against it - you’re opinion and experiences are important to us. The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete and everyone that finishes the survey will be entered into a drawing for an Amazon Echo Dot. The survey closes May 5 and the winner will be announced the following week.

And, if you share the survey with your friends on Twitter, you’ll get an extra entry for the Amazon Echo Dot. We've even drafted the Tweet for you, to make it easy to earn that extra entry. Of course, feel free to write your own, but be sure to include #AARR in your Tweet!

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences.

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