Retrospective and Feelings Meetings in Agile Software Development

Agile software development is getting established in the Icelandic software industry and the number of companies using Agile processes in their work is increasing. One approach in Agile is the retrospective meetings, where the whole team attends and inspects how the iteration has been going and decide what can be done to improve their future processes. Retrospectives have always been a part of Agile processes, but they have not been considered to be the most important part of the processes. Still there are indications that the meetings are highly important and even the reason for success in many projects. On retrospective meetings the team members emphasize on the process and discuss how the iteration went and what procedures can be improved, what should be eliminated and what should be kept. Feelings meetings are not an established Agile method but are originated from parts of Agile that have evolved into feelings meetings at the company the research study took place, Plain Vanilla. The feelings meetings are short meetings where the teams meet to discuss how they have felt in the last iteration, and give the members the opportunity to express their feelings to their teammates and also get the chance to hear how their teammates are doing. This paper presents results from a research study based on observations and 11 interviews, eight structured interviews, as well as three semi-structured interviews. The main focus of the study is to give an understanding on the procedure and the practitioners’ perspectives of the retrospective meetings and the feelings meetings in the Agile working environment. The observation, and all but one interview, were conducted in cooperation with employees at Plain Vanilla. One independent software consultant, an expert in Agile processes, was also interviewed, to gain insights from an outsider. The results show the importance of retrospective meetings and the huge effect they can have on teamwork and team productivity. They also show how the meetings seem to be an highly important part of the software development process as they result in better overview and improvement of processes. The feelings meetings are not as established as the retrospective meetings and the outcomes from those meetings are not as decisive. But overall these meetings result in tighter teams and better understanding between teammates. The results also show how important the role of the Agile coach is and how they are often the driving force the teams need to have successful meetings