[Background]: In hybrid work (agile retrospective) meetings, team members can share their sprint experiences if they feel they are in a psychologically safe environment based on human emotions and sentiments. These sentiments can vary in different instances of retrospect and can significantly impact the effectiveness of the hybrid work meetings. [Aim]: This study aims to identify the sentiment variations in hybrid work (agile retrospective) meetings. [Method]: We conducted multiple case studies to identify the sentiment variations. [Results]: The agile retrospective exhibited positive, neutral, and negative sentiments. We observed positive fluctuations peaking at a maximum of eight times and neutral sentiments six times. We discovered six factors that trigger the sentiment variations. [Conclusions]: The team sentiment variations generated from the emotions offer valuable insights for improving agile retrospectives in a hybrid work environment.
Leif Knutsen Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Karl Kristian Larsson Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Jo Hannay Simula Research Laboratory