Devs only focus on "technical problems" in Retrospective - need help

[Marlene Stroj]

Hello,

I'm a Scrum Master of a scrum team which develops an API that aggregates data from a bunch of different systems so that consumers can access all data needed by them through this API rather than having to have interfaces for all the systems around. We are in the fortunate situation to be able to hold a retrospective after every sprint, every two weeks.

I've noticed that it is increasingly hard to get the team to talk and think about their process and collaboration issues and how to improve as a team in the retrospectives. Most of the time, all they come up with is very technology or hardware related. e.g. "what went well" would typically be something like "We get more servers" or "It's great we are splitting service X". 

Action items that come out of the retrospectives are mostly "X creates a spike in the backlog to try out technology Y", "X asks the client to buy more servers", "X sets up a meeting to discuss the new technology Y with the client". Naturally, none of the team members ever feels responsible for what happens to said spike or care if those meetings ever take place.

I believe, that this is not the idea of a retrospective. It looks to me like the team is trying to make everyone else around them do something for them pushing their responsibilities for inspection and adaptation away. Whenever I ask for underlying issues or what they themselves want to try to improve, they simply don't know what to say. On the other hand, as Scrum Master I don't want to force them into discussions about topics that I bring to the table.

Any ideas on how to improve the teams ability to also think about their non technical issues? I thought about asking them for technical improvements upfront and make a list and then start with the "real" retrospective or turn the retrospective in a "Taboo game" to prevent the use of words like "server" or "technology X" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboo_(game)). 

Help and ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Marlene

 

[Ron Jeffries]

Marlene,

On Sep 28, 2015, at 9:50 AM, Marlene Stroj <marlen...@liip.ch> wrote:

Any ideas on how to improve the teams ability to also think about their non technical issues? I thought about asking them for technical improvements upfront and make a list and then start with the "real" retrospective or turn the retrospective in a "Taboo game" to prevent the use of words like "server" or "technology X" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboo_(game)). 

Are there any reasons why the team members might not feel safe bringing up local issues? Attendees at the meeting, or other issues affecting safety?

Ron Jeffries

ronjeffries.com

Don't ignore your dreams; don't work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy. -- Paul Graham

[Marlene Stroj]

No, the culture is very open in that regard. We have a very flat hierarchical structure. I'll give the "Safety-Check" check-in exercise a try and maybe something will come up.

Thanks for your reply.

[Pierre Neis]

Hi Marlene,

I think that pushing the retrospective only focus on technical problems isn't a really good solution.

Now if you have to fix those problems make a TechRetro to differentiate between "Retro" and "TechRetro" i.e. different purposes and schedule it once a month.

PierreNEIS , Lean Agile Coach | Associate

Steaming still water!

M: +352 / 661 727 867 | pie...@wecompany.me

Luxembourg | Paris | Brussels | Geneva | Beirut

 

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[Mark Levison]

Marlene - it does seem odd.

Have you tried systems thinking as a tool to help you understand the forces that affect them? Also consider SCARF by David Rock as a tool to understand their behavior.

Both are referenced here: https://agilepainrelief.com/scrummaster-resources-and-references

SCARF is linked to in the understanding people section.

See also the section on retrospectives for more ideas.

Let me know what helps.

Cheers
Mark

[Marlene Stroj]

I'll have a look and let you know how it went. Thanks very much for your help!