Mentioned in Software Development Times Magazine

I have come across various challenges that employees face when it comes to facilitating retrospectives in software engineering teams. They are meant to identify areas for improvement in their team’s processes and practices and are essential to creating a culture of continuous improvement but they are not always easy to conduct.

As someone who has spent decades working in the software industry, I have witnessed many common problems that Engineers face when it comes to collaborating with Product Owners to prioritize the product backlog items. This is especially true with the Agile methodology of project management, which involves frequent and close collaboration between engineering teams and product owners.

New teams will go through the four stages of team psychological development – Forming, Storming, Norming, & Performing. They require time to stabilize and to begin producing reliable and forecastable work every sprint. It’s not uncommon for sprint planning meetings to become unproductive or frustrating, which can lead to delays, misunderstandings, and missed deadlines.