Sprint Retrospective

Definition

A sprint retrospective is the Scrum ceremony held at the end of each sprint where the team reflects on what went well, what didn't, and what specific process changes to make before the next sprint.

Overview

The retrospective closes out the Scrum sprint cycle, following the sprint review where completed work is demoed to stakeholders. Unlike the review, which focuses on the product, the retrospective focuses inward on the team's process — how the team collaborated, communicated, and executed during the sprint. A typical retrospective walks through a few guiding questions: what went well and should continue, what didn't go well and should change, and what specific, concrete actions the team will try in the next sprint. Common formats include "Start, Stop, Continue" or "Mad, Sad, Glad," facilitated by the scrum master to keep the discussion constructive rather than a blame session. The retrospective is what makes agile genuinely iterative at the process level, not just the product level: without it, a team might ship working software every sprint while repeating the same coordination problems indefinitely. Effective retrospectives produce a small number of concrete action items — not a long unprioritized list — that get revisited in the next retrospective to check whether they actually improved anything. It is often mentioned alongside Sprint Planning in this space.

Key Concepts

• Held at the end of every sprint, after the sprint review
• Focuses on team process and collaboration, not the product itself
• Facilitated by the scrum master using structured formats
• Common formats: Start/Stop/Continue, Mad/Sad/Glad, or 4Ls
• Produces a small number of concrete, actionable process changes
• Creates a blameless space for honest feedback on what isn't working
• Action items are revisited in the next retrospective to check follow-through

Use Cases

Frequently Asked Questions

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