id: agile-retrospective-five-steps
title: Agile Retrospective
description: >-
  A five-step team reflection meeting held at the end of an iteration to
  improve process. Formalised in the Agile software development tradition,
  drawing on Norm Kerth's retrospective prime directive.
source: Esther Derby and Diana Larsen, "Agile Retrospectives"
source_url: https://www.agileretrospectives.com/
tags: [agile, retrospective, teams, improvement]
forked_from: null
image: null
steps:
  - headline: Set the stage
    description: >-
      The facilitator states the retrospective prime directive and checks in
      each person briefly, setting psychological safety.
  - headline: Gather data
    description: >-
      The team collects what happened during the iteration — events,
      metrics, feelings — without interpretation.
  - headline: Generate insights
    description: >-
      The team analyses the data for patterns and root causes, asking why
      things happened as they did.
  - headline: Decide what to do
    description: >-
      The team selects one or two actionable improvements for the next
      iteration, with owners and due dates.
  - headline: Close
    description: >-
      The facilitator closes with appreciation and a check on how the
      retrospective itself went.
outcome: >-
  The team commits to one or two concrete improvements owned by named
  people, with shared understanding of why.
practice: >-
  The prime directive matters: "Regardless of what we discover, we
  understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could."
  It prevents blame.