Exploring Retrospective Meeting Practices and the Use of Data in Agile Teams
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Retrospectives are vital for software development teams to continuously enhance their processes and teamwork. Despite the increasing availability of objective data generated throughout the project and software development processes, many teams do not fully utilize this information in retrospective meetings. Instead, they often rely on subjective data, anecdotal insights and their memory. While some literature underscores the value of data-driven retrospectives, little attention has been given to the role data can play and the challenges of effectively incorporating objective project data into these meetings. To address this gap, we conducted a survey with 19 practitioners on retrospective meeting practices and how their teams gather and use subjective and objective data in their retrospectives. Our findings confirm that although teams routinely collect project data, they seldom employ it systematically during retrospectives. Furthermore, this study provides insights into retrospective practices by exploring barriers to project data utilization, including psychological safety concerns and the disconnect between data collection and meaningful integration of data into retrospective meetings. We close by considering preliminary insights that may help to mitigate these concerns and how future research might build on our paper findings to support the integration of project data into retrospective meetings, fostering a balance between human-centric reflections and data-driven insights.
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Sun 27 AprDisplayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change
11:00 - 12:30 | Software Teams (Agile, Teamwork and Collaboration) SessionResearch Track at 210 Chair(s): Klaas-Jan Stol Lero; University College Cork; SINTEF Digital | ||
11:00 10mTalk | Towards a Taxonomy for Autonomy in Large-Scale Agile Software Development Research Track Casper Lassenius Aalto University, Finland and Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Norway, Torgeir Dingsøyr Norwegian University of Science and Technology and SimulaMet | ||
11:10 10mTalk | Exploring Retrospective Meeting Practices and the Use of Data in Agile Teams Research Track Alessandra Maciel Paz Milani University of Victoria, Margaret-Anne Storey University of Victoria, Vivek Katial Multitudes, Lauren Peate Multitudes Pre-print | ||
11:20 15mTalk | The Role of the Retrospective Meetings in Detecting, Refactoring and Monitoring Community Smells Research Track Carlos Dantas Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Norte, Tiago Massoni Federal University of Campina Grande, Camila Sarmento Federal Institute of Piauí, Rayana Rocha Federal University of Campina Grande, Danielly Gualberto Federal University of Campina Grande Pre-print | ||
11:35 15mTalk | Hybrid Work in Agile Software Development: Recurring Meetings Research Track Emily Laue Christensen IT University of Copenhagen, Maria Paasivaara LUT University, Finland & Aalto University, Finland, Iflaah Salman Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT) | ||
11:50 15mTalk | A Cluster-based Approach for Emotion Recognition in Software Development Research Track Daniela Grassi University of Bari, Filippo Lanubile University of Bari, Alberta Motca-Schnabel University of Bari, Nicole Novielli University of Bari | ||
12:05 15mTalk | Towards Emotionally Intelligent Software Engineers: Understanding Students' Self Perceptions After a Cooperative Learning Experience Research Track Allysson Allex Araújo Federal University of Cariri, Marcos Kalinowski Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Matheus Paixao State University of Ceará, Daniel Graziotin University of Hohenheim |