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***Remote Agile (Part 5): Retrospectives with Distributed Teams

TL; DR: A Remote Retrospective with a Distributed Team

We started this series on remote agile with looking into practices and tools, followed by exploring virtual Liberating Structures, how to master Zoom as well as common remote agile anti-patterns. This fifth article now dives into organizing a remote Retrospective with a distributed team: practices, tools, and lessons learned.

The Scrum Guide on the Sprint Retrospective

According to the Scrum Guide, the Sprint Retrospective serves the following purpose:

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Remote Agile (Part 3): Mastering Zoom

In this third post of the Remote Agile series, we address the tool at the heart of working with a distributed team as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, or Product Owner: Zoom. While Zoom is an excellent video conference application — particularly for larger groups of twelve or more attendees — by all standards, its killer feature is breakout rooms.

You may also like: Suddenly Remote? Here's How to Regain Your Productivity in Record Time

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Remote Agile (Part 2): Virtual Liberating Structures

Last week, we addressed basic practices and tools of remote agile with distributed teams. Based on that article, I also ran a live virtual class, the recording of which will be made available soon on the Age-of-Product’s Youtube channel. This follow-up post now delves into virtual Liberating Structures, answering the question of how we can make use of the powerful toolbox of inclusive and collaborative practices in a remote setting.

Liberating Structures

Created by Keith McCandless and Henri Lipmanowicz, Liberating Structures cover a set of easy to learn, yet powerful ways to collaborate as a team — even as a (very) large team by Scrum standards, overcoming traditional communications approaches like presentations, managed discussions, or another disorganized brainstorming at which the loudest participants tend to prevail.

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Social Distancing, Spirit of Agility and the Rise of Super Distributed Teams

The COVID-19 outbreak has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, causing an unprecedented impact on people’s lives, families and communities. Every government and organization usually has a business continuity plan; however, the magnitude of the current crisis, no one saw coming. We’re discovering new ways of responding at every level — be it governments, companies, communities, families or individuals.

The way the events unfolded, we all observed how various governments and organizations responded and handled the outbreak so far. The speed at which things are evolving on a daily basis demonstrates the spirit of agility. The response is coming in different shapes and at a different speed.