avatarharuki zaemon

Extreme Smart Arses

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Every two weeks we have our iteration close during which we hold a mini retrospective. We break our observations into four

  • What Worked Well?;
  • What Went Wrong?;
  • What Puzzles Us?; and;
  • What to Do Differently Next Time?

Mike Melia made an observation that, when one works too late, they are prone to making stupid mistakes. Therefore, it’s often better to go home, get a good nights sleep and tackle the problem the next day. Sage advice. Golf-claps all ‘round.

Of course being the bunch of smart-arse, lazy, meeting loathing developers that we are, we decided that it was such a good point we could probably generalise it a bit and save ourselves a lot of time for the next and subsequent iteration close meetings:

  • What Went Wrong? People made mistakes;
  • What Puzzles Us? Why do people make mistakes?;
  • What to Do Differently Next Time? Don’t make mistakes;

And of course the one we all hope for:

  • What Worked Well? People made fewer mistakes.

I think everyone will agree though that David (get a blog soon you git!) Pattinson does do a pretty good iteration close/kick-off especially as he is continually interrupted by people throwing stress balls around and knocking cans of coke off tables. Sheesh. Who would do such a thing I ask you? :-P