Retrospective
A retrospective is a structured reflection on recent or completed work in which participants identify lessons and improvements for future work.
Think Like a Software Engineering Manager
A retrospective is a structured team reflection used to inspect recent work and identify improvements to collaboration or process.
- How it is used
- Uses reflection to improve cross-functional collaboration, project delivery, management transitions, and time allocation.
- How deep it goes
- Provides reflection prompts and session goals, but does not specify a detailed team-facilitation procedure.
- Examples
- Illustrates reflection with management-transition questions and two ways to record time spent across priority quadrants.
- What you can do after
- Practice/perform it to identify improvements and actionable steps after shared work or a personal transition.
Read how Think Like a Software Engineering Manager explains retrospective →
Collaborative Software Design: How to facilitate domain modeling decisions
A retrospective is a recurring team meeting for examining recent work and agreeing on improvements to future collaboration or delivery.
- How it is used
- Uses post-session reflection to improve collaborative modeling, preserve feedback, and turn decisions into follow-up actions.
- How deep it goes
- Explains timing, participants, reflection questions, bias control, follow-up, and consequences of omission.
- Examples
- Uses session observations, participant feedback, photographs of physical visuals, a canvas, follow-up concerns, and premortem outcomes.
- What you can do after
- Diagnose collaboration problems, validate follow-up responsibilities, and adjust future sessions or organizational behavior.
Lead Developer Career Guide
A team reflection meeting used to examine recent work and identify improvements for future work.
- How it is used
- Uses team reflection to capture pain points, review velocity, and improve development processes.
- How deep it goes
- Explains the meeting’s improvement purpose and practical discussion targets but does not prescribe a fixed agenda or facilitation method.
- Examples
- Uses recurring bugs, failed regression tests, slow tasks, agile transformation, and annual leadership reflection as examples.
- What you can do after
- Practice/perform a retrospective by identifying problems, discussing specific improvements, incorporating feedback, and following up on changes.
Read how Lead Developer Career Guide explains retrospective →
Architecture Modernization: Socio-technical alignment of software, strategy, and structure
A retrospective is a facilitated group reflection on completed work that identifies what is working and opportunities for improvement.
- How it is used
- Uses recurring group reflection to improve team delivery, modernization collaboration, and workshop behavior.
- How deep it goes
- Explains purpose, participants, cadence, and facilitation examples without prescribing a complete retrospective procedure.
- Examples
- Uses monthly team reviews, project retrospectives, and a workshop exercise asking what participants learned and would change.
- What you can do after
- Practice/perform recurring retrospectives that identify improvements and strengthen collaboration across participating teams.
The Creative Programmer
A Scrum event in which a team reflects on completed work and identifies improvements to people, relationships, processes, and tools.
- How it is used
- Uses regular team reflection to improve people, relationships, processes, and tools after completed work.
- How deep it goes
- Defines the event, outlines five facilitation stages, and names techniques without detailing a complete meeting script.
- Examples
- Uses Check-In, Mad Sad Glad, Five Whys, Circle of Questions, Temperature Reading, Pomodoro, time tracking, and interruption patterns.
- What you can do after
- Practice/perform a Sprint Retrospective by gathering observations, generating insights, choosing improvements, and closing the reflection.
Related concepts
- continuous improvementcontrasts with · Continuous improvement is an ongoing process of evaluating outcomes and making successive changes to improve a system, process, or result.
- software design EventStormingused by · Software design EventStorming is a collaborative modeling technique that explores domain events and processes to inform software structure and behavior.
- investingmeasures · Investing is the allocation of money or other resources to an asset, venture, or undertaking with the expectation of obtaining a future benefit or return.
These guides are generated from the text of Manning books by Manning's knowledge graph and link to the sections they draw on. The full books are available on liveBook and at manning.com.