What a Retrospective Ain't

[rant]

Last week I heard someone espousing a new form of project review called a Retrospective. Here's what she advised:

Anonymous feedback via survey or questionnaire
Ranking of questionnaire results
Functional groups discussing questionnaire results in isolation
Tightly controlled discussion of topics selected by the facilitator
Limited participation (enforced by the facilitator)
Lists of "good" and "bad" practices
Formal improvement projects

No! No! No!

The process above may be something, but it ain't a Retrospective, and it ain't going to promote individual or group learning.

The value of Retrospectives comes from:

seeing the project in a different way

people understanding other's points of view

hearing the story of the project from many perspectives

reflecting on experiences

cross-functional pollination

open discussion of tough issues

team members identifying what they feel worked well and what to do differently

team members choosing what's important to talk about

team members choosing what to work on going forward

[/rant]