Sprint Retrospective Start Stop Continue Template

Start Stop and Continue is a great format to focus on the things that are working (CONTINUE), things that are not working (STOP) and things that the team should start doing (START). It focus on the past, present and future at the same time. It is an action-oriented retrospective technique that encourages participants to come up with practical ideas for team-based improvement. It is a method about quick idea generation. Instead of listing all topics, grouping them, and then trying to take action on specific groups, this technique tries to identify actions straight away.

Start Stop and Continue

START

This consists of all ideas that the team should be working on but are not. e.g. start monitoring application logs? Can we, as a team, do things differently? Can a new process help? Or a new tool? Anything that's worth trying out if the team gets more effective, better team morale or quality. Think for activities which can improve processes, reduce waste and have a positive impact on the way the team operates. Few questions to trigger this thought process:

If money wasn't a factor, where would you like to invest?
Imagine having another person on your team. What task or activities would you assign to them that we haven't yet begun?

STOP

This consists of things that do not deliver the expected result or things that are not productive. E.g. stop inviting everybody to all the ceremonies or end ceremonies on or stop following a non-value adding activities, etc. Think for activities which are inefficient, waste time or resources and have a negative impact on the way people feel or the way things work. Few questions to trigger this thought process:

What would you cut from your workday if you had to leave early for vacation?
What activities do you mentally place at the bottom of your to-do list, even before you've written it?
Have you ever noticed an area of your job that consistently gets bumped to the next day or even next month? What is that and why is it so easy to defer until a later date?

CONTINUE

What worked well and should remain as is e.g. face to face ceremonies which is helping in team building etc. Few questions to trigger this thought process:

Where are we adding the most value for our customers?
Which responsibilities do you personally find most fulfilling?
Is there an activity that defines our corporate culture that we should continue doing?

Start Stop and Continue Sprint Retrospective

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Liked Learned Lacked Longed For (4Ls) Retrospective

Phases of Start Stop and Continue Retrospective

Phase 1: Idea generation or Brainstorm

Provide time to write down ideas under Start, Stop and Continue categories. The scrum master can help by asking open ended probing questions like: What would make it more fun, effective or efficient to work a sprint? Ask to recall all the work they did during the sprint etc. Each participant should have 1 to 3 items in each of the categories.

Phase 2: Merge Similar Ideas

All the ideas out of previous phase should be visible to everybody. Facilitator or SM read out loud every idea and start merging the ones that are similar. During the discussion the group should not evaluate the ideas, the focus is on understanding the items.

Phase 3: Voting (Dot Voting)

Ask team members to vote and choose top three ideas which are more significant or need to be addressed.

Phase 4: Prioritize and next steps

Votes of all participants are combined and items in each of the categories are ranked. Focus should be on why they think the ideas are crucial to the progress of the team. It is recommended to implement 1 to 3 items from each category in the next sprint or iteration.

The actions don't have to be measurable, but the previous iteration can be used to generate benchmark values to help define the actions for the next sprint.

How Start Stop and Continue works

Step One: Show the team the template separated into three areas, labeled: Start, Stop and Continue.

Step Two: Explain how the technique works and assign timebox for different activities to be performed during this retrospective.

Step Three: Hand out sticky notes to the participants and tell them the timebox for this phase. Ask the team members to recall all the work they did during the sprint.

Step Four: Have everyone put their stickies on a large wall as per the column definitions (Start, Stop and Continue)

Step Five: Facilitate to group similar ideas present in stickies into clusters (categories). The facilitator should announce the timebox.

Step Six: Opt to use Dot Voting to prioritize the discussion based on the collective desires of the group. The facilitator should announce the timebox.

Step Seven: Point out the three stickies with the most votes and ask team to discuss these stickies by probing open ended questions why do you think it's important?

Step Eight: Finish the exercise by forming next steps.

Youtube Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXE_4R5EALo

Sprint Retrospective – Tools and Techniques : Click Here

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Source: https://www.techagilist.com/agile/scrum/start-stop-and-continue-sprint-retrospective/