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Christian Heidemeyer

Working Agreements: 10 Examples, Samples & Templates

Effective collaboration in teams is crucial for success, especially in the context of agile methods such as Scrum. Working Agreements play a crucial role in creating a clear framework for collaboration. And, of course, model working agreements can help to come up with good ideas here.

In this article, I've taken a closer look at the importance of working agreements in agile and remote teams and also evaluated how regular reviews and adjustments help to continuously improve a dynamic and productive team environment. Let's start with an introductory explanation of working agreements.

One more thing: As a manager, do you feel unsure about what systematic & successful people management looks like? Then I have something for you: Our free online people management training course.

Take a look and learn, for example, a trick on how you can increase team performance relatively easily by 10-20%. Feel free to have a look, you can get started right away 🙂 But back to the topic.

Agile Sample Working Agreements Scrum | Examples Templates

Agile Working Agreements: What are they?

"Working agreements refer to agreements or rules that are established within a team or organization to improve collaboration and promote a positive work environment. These agreements serve as a guide for the behaviour of team members and can help minimize misunderstandings, increase productivity and reduce conflict.

Typically, working agreements are drawn up at the beginning of a project or collaboration and accepted by all team members. These agreements can cover various aspects, including

  1. Communication: Definition of communication channels, times and styles to promote effective and transparent communication.

  2. Working hours: Clarification of working hours, breaks and availability to ensure a consistent work structure.

  3. Responsibilities: Define the roles and tasks of each team member to create clarity about responsibilities.

  4. Respect and cooperation: Agreement on respectful behavior, the promotion of teamwork and the resolution of conflicts in a constructive manner.

  5. Working method: Definition of processes, methods and tools to be used in the team to ensure efficiency and consistency.

  6. Feedback: Clarification of feedback mechanisms and culture in order to promote open and constructive feedback.

The purpose of working agreements is to create a common understanding and ensure that all team members work in the same way. These agreements can vary depending on the team and project and should be reviewed regularly and adapted as necessary.

So what could be concrete examples of working agreements? The following sample working agreements will help you to better understand the subject matter.

Agile Sample Working Agreements Scrum | Examples Templates

Agile Working Agreements Examples

Here are some examples or sample working agreements that can be established in a team or organization:

  1. Respectful communication:

    • We respect the opinions and ideas of all team members.
    • Criticism is constructive and aims to improve cooperation.
    • We listen attentively and give everyone the opportunity to express themselves.

  2. Punctuality and availability:

    • We adhere to agreed working hours and inform the team of any absences in good time.
    • In urgent cases, we will inform the team about delays in good time.

  3. Tasks and responsibilities:

    • Each team member understands their roles and responsibilities.
    • We divide tasks transparently and help each other when necessary.

  4. Effective communication:

    • We use clear and precise language.
    • We share important information via the communication channel provided for this purpose.

  5. Working methods and tools:

    • We use jointly defined tools and methods for project work.
    • Changes to tools or processes are discussed and agreed within the team.

  6. Feedback culture:

    • We regularly give constructive feedback and take time to reflect on it.
    • Feedback is given on a factual and respectful level.

  7. Personal responsibility:

    • Each team member takes responsibility for their tasks and for achieving the team's goals.
    • We actively look for solutions before we let problems escalate.

  8. Confidentiality:

    • Information marked as confidential will be respected and not shared without consent.

These examples or samples serve as a starting point. It is important that working agreements correspond to the specific needs and dynamics of the team. The agreements should be discussed openly and accepted by all team members.

For example, you may be working in a Scrum team. What would concrete examples of working agreements in Scrum look like?

Before I go into this, I would like to point out our working agreement or workshop and Health Check retrospective templates: In Echometer you can reflect Health Check items (quasi Working Agreements) in your agile retrospectives. You can take a look at it directly (without login) by clicking on the button below:

Team Morale Check Retrospective Radar Chart
Open this retro now

Note: This retrospective format asks for agreement with the given Health Check items on a scale.

Team Radar Tool Health Check Retrospective
  • Appreciation: My colleagues appreciate my contribution to the team.
  • Team Spirit: There is a trusting working atmosphere in our team.
  • Transparency: Everyone in my team knows who is currently working on what.
  • Recovery & Breaks: I have enough room for breaks in which I can draw new energy.
  • Meeting culture: Our meetings are well structured, yet leave room for creativity and new ideas.
  • Support: In my team, each team member passes on their individual knowledge and experience.

Agile Sample Working Agreements Scrum | Examples Templates

Agile Working Agreements Examples for Scrum Teams

In the Scrum context, working agreements can help to promote collaboration within the team and ensure that all members work effectively and efficiently. The following would be some concrete examples or samples of Working Agreements in a Scrum team:

  1. Punctuality at Scrum events:

    • All team members commit to showing up on time for Scrum events, including Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-up, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.

  2. Active participation in Scrum events:

    • Each team member actively participates in Scrum events, shares progress, obstacles and looks for opportunities to collaborate.

  3. Limitation of the work in progress (WIP):

    • The team agrees on a maximum number of tasks that can be completed at the same time in order to avoid overload and to promote the completion of tasks.

  4. Daily stand-up rules:

    • The daily stand-up remains short and focused, with everyone only sharing relevant information about their work and any obstacles.
    • Discussions that are not directly related to the daily stand-up are held outside the meeting.

  5. Definition of "Done":

    • The team has a clear and mutually accepted definition of "Done" for each task to ensure that completed tasks are of high quality and complete.

  6. Responsibilities for obstacles:

    • Team members commit to reporting obstacles immediately and actively contributing to the solution, if possible.

In addition to Scrum, there are other frameworks, such as the Scaled Agile Framework SAFe, which is used in scaled agile teams. What could examples or sample working agreements look like?

Before we go any further, here's a quick note. Ultimately, one of the main goals of work agreements is to improve your team's performance. But how do you actually achieve this holistically? I explain an important mental model to answer this question in part two of our free People Development Online Training course:

Agile Sample Working Agreements Scrum | Examples Templates

Agile Working Agreements Examples for SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework)

Here, too, there are sample working agreements that go in similar directions:

  1. PI planning:

    • We prepare ourselves well for SAFe Program Increment (PI) planning and bring all the relevant information with us.
    • Everyone has the opportunity to share their point of view and we encourage an open discussion.

  2. Continuous improvement:

    • We are committed to continuous improvement and actively participate in SAFe and team retrospectives.
    • Suggestions for improvement are documented and implemented in the next iterations.

  3. Clear definition of Ready and Done:

    • We have clear criteria for "Ready" (ready for processing) and "Done" (completed) at release train level.
    • The definitions are regularly reviewed and updated as necessary.

  4. Knowledge sharing and collaboration:

    • We promote the exchange of knowledge between the SAFe teams within the ART and contribute to the shared knowledge base.
    • Teams work closely together and support each other to achieve the PI goals.

  5. Respect for roles and responsibilities:

    • Each role in the SAFe framework is respected and the responsibilities of the individual roles are clearly defined.
    • Conflicts or ambiguities regarding roles are resolved proactively.

These are a few examples or sample Working Agreements in SAFe. It is important that teams adapt the SAFe Working Agreements to their context and review them regularly to ensure that they continue to be effective. 

The sample working agreements should help you to create your own working agreements - to avoid the chaos that plagues some agile project teams.

Now that we've talked about Scrum and SAFe, what about working agreement examples in remote teams?

Agile Sample Working Agreements Scrum | Examples Templates

Working agreement examples for remote teams

Working agreements are particularly important for remote teams as they help to set clear expectations and optimize collaboration in a virtual environment. Here again is a small list of ideas and examples or sample working agreements in remote teams:

  1. Communication rules:

    • Definition of preferred communication channels (e.g. chat, video calls, e-mail).
    • Clear expectations regarding the response time to messages.

  2. Working hours and availability:

    • Transparent definition of working hours and availability.
    • Clarification of how and when breaks can be taken.

  3. Status updates:

    • Agreement on regular status updates to give team members insight into ongoing tasks.
    • Use of tools to update the work status.

  4. Meeting etiquette:

    • Clear rules for participation in virtual meetings, including punctuality and active participation.
    • Recording of meetings to support those who were unable to attend.

  5. Documentation and knowledge exchange:

    • Agreement on the documentation of decisions, discussions and measures taken.
    • Use of shared document or knowledge platforms for easy collaboration.

  6. Availability for spontaneous conversations:

    • Clarity about when team members are available for spontaneous conversations and when they are not (e.g. through status displays).

  7. Help and support:

    • Open communication about the need for help and support services.
    • Establishment of a channel for questions and help within the team.

  8. Confidentiality and data protection:

    • Agreement on the respectful handling of confidential information and data protection guidelines.

  9. Breaks and relaxation:

    • Encourage breaks to recover and avoid overwork.
    • Encourage the use of absence notifications during breaks or vacations.

These examples or templates are designed to address the specific challenges of remote working and facilitate collaboration in a distributed team. It is important that these agreements are drawn up jointly, because only then will the team really take them to heart!

Speaking of –, how would it actually work to define your own working agreements? There are templates for this!

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Agile Sample Working Agreements Scrum | Examples Templates

Working Agreement Template

A working agreement template is a predefined format or template that serves as a starting point for creating working agreements in a team or organization. It helps to structure the processes and ensure that important aspects of collaboration are covered. Here are some elements that could be included in a working agreement template:

  1. Headline:

    • A clear heading indicating that this is a working agreement. For example: "Team Working Agreement" or "Scrum Team Working Agreement".

  2. Introduction:

    • A short introduction explaining the purpose of the Working Agreement and emphasizing why it is important.

  3. Date and version:

    • A section for the date the Working Agreement was created or updated and the version number to ensure that all team members are using the latest version.

  4. Responsible parties:

    • A list of responsible parties, including all team members and possibly also the team leader or Scrum Master.

  5. The Working Agreement itself:

    • This is where the core is to be found, the concrete action for the team. 

  6. Continuous improvement:

    • An area that underlines the fact that the Working Agreement could well be adapted again in the future – at the beginning it would therefore possibly still be empty.

  7. Signatures:

    • Space for the signatures of all team members to confirm that they have read, understood and accepted the Working Agreement.

Such a template can serve as a starting point for discussions within the team and promotes the active participation of all members in the definition of their working agreements.

However, the focus of this template would be on the documentation of the Working Agreements. But how do you draft them? An open method for this could be the "Team Commitments" questions. Here, 3 sentences are given that aim to filter out existing behaviors from the team in order to define concrete working agreements based on them. The latter would probably only happen in a second step.

Below you will find the sentences for the Working Agreement Template: The goal is that the team simply completes the sentences to understand which behaviors currently exist or which behaviors are desired. Part of the workshop also includes a simple Health Check survey at the beginning, which asks anonymously how "aligned" the team's understanding of good work actually is.

You can also conduct the workshop directly in our retrospective and team development tool Echometer by pressing the button. 

Health Check Survey

As a team, we share a common understanding of what "good work" is.

Open Feedback Questions

Handling of contradictory priorities: ‘When I encounter contradictory priorities, I …’

Communication of blockers: ‘When I am stuck on a task, I announce this by …’

Navigation of conflicts: ‘When I notice a conflict start to build up in our team, I …’

working agreement sample template tool
Open this template now
Customize...

Agile Sample Working Agreements Scrum | Examples Templates

Reflecting on working agreements in a one-to-one meeting

Many managers have regular one-to-one meetings with their employees. This meeting routine – alongside agile retrospectives (see below) – is of course also suitable for individually reflecting on working agreements.

The idea is that you pick out individual working agreements once every one or two months, for example, and make them part of your one-to-one meeting.

The exciting thing here is that it should of course be working agreements that are particularly relevant to the individual. 

The following template gives you a few examples of statements that you can reflect on in a one-to-one meeting. You can even try them out directly in our 1-to-1 meeting tool Echometer by clicking on the green button.

⁉️ Agreements (agreement from 1-7) for personal development

  • "My work tasks usually progress very quickly, even if external feedback is necessary."
  • "If I observe suboptimal behavior, I know how I can constructively draw my colleagues' attention to it."
  • "I receive constructive Feedback both to my work and to my personal development."
  • "I see an attractive career path ahead of me in the company." #Growth
  • "In the last few weeks, I have often been able to use my Strengths at work."

This is what this survey looks like in Echometer:

Free One-on-One-Meeting Template Form Satisfaction - English
Open template in 1:1 tool

Admittedly: I am extending the term "working agreement" here to an area of work outside the team. But I am doing this deliberately because there is obviously also great potential in the individual development of employees.

If you are interested in good templates for 1-to-1 meetings, take a look here: Here you will find 129 one-to-one meeting (or appraisal interview) questions and Here are the 3 best one-on-one meeting tools in comparison – including Echometer of course.

Agile Sample Working Agreements Scrum | Examples Templates

Central: Continuous reminding & improving

Experience shows that working agreements can easily be forgotten in some document or on a poster on the wall after a few weeks of the project have passed. What can you do about it?

My suggestion:

  1. Put the Working Agreements regularly on the agenda of your agile retrospectives!
  2. Use (possibly anonymous) surveys to recall working agreements in a simple way. 

The advantage of this method is that it creates even more exciting metrics for your continuous improvement – and there are even more positives:

  1. Measurable metrics:

    • Surveys can provide quantifiable metrics to measure the effectiveness of Working Agreements and also Agilen coaching and identify trends over time.

  2. Integration into the workflow:

    • The integration of surveys into the normal workflow enables the team to continuously deal with the Working Agreements without the need for special meetings.

  3. Anonymity and openness:

    • Surveys can provide anonymity, which may encourage team members to give honest feedback without worrying that their opinions will be identified.

In fact, the methodology of the Echometer tool is exactly as described: it combines agile Health Check surveys – on working agreements – with agile retrospectives, among other things. This approach makes agile coaching much more efficient and finally measurable. Echometer is regarded as one of the best retrospective software tools.

Echometer is a digital tool that helps agile team leads with agile retrospectives and team Health Checks. Whether remote, hybrid or on-site: it makes team coaching measurable and professionalizes your work while saving you a lot of work. Just take a look at our website to find out more: www.echometerapp.com.

"Working agreements too often end up in the dusty basement of an inefficient team - get them out of there, right in the middle of your retrospective!"

Christian Heidemeyer, Psychologist & Scrum Master

Agile Sample Working Agreements Scrum | Examples Templates

Conclusion - Agile Working Agreements in Scrum and beyond

I hope my thoughts on Working Agreements have shown that they are not just guidelines, but can be living instruments of team collaboration. Continuous reflection, integration of feedback and adaptation to changing conditions are crucial for the success of working agreements. 

Finally, a note again: If you would like to try out how it feels to regularly reflect on working agreements in your retrospectives: You can start an agile retrospective below without logging in, in this case the "Keep, Stop, Start" workshop. 

Alternatively, simply forward our website to the responsible colleagues: www.echometerapp.com.

Open Feedback Questions

Continue: What should we keep?

Stop: What should we stop doing?

Start: What should we start doing?

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First Health question: "😍 We love going to work, and have great fun working together."

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FAQ about the online retrospective tool

No, you do not need to log in to Echometer or register to test the Retro Board and Retro Tool in Echometer.

You can try out Echometer's Retro Board via the following link without logging in: Try a Practice Round

First, simply register for free in Echometer. Then navigate to the workspace for which you would like to purchase the retro tool. If you haven't already done so, you can do so here: Create account in Echometer 1:1 tool

You can then manage your subscription (for both the retro tool and the 1:1 software) within the workspace settings.

You can choose from various payment methods when upgrading.

If you do not have access to your company's credit card yourself, you can simply add a buyer as a workspace admin in your Echometer workspace so that this admin can carry out the upgrade for you.

In Echometer there are two separate software solutions that are available within each workspace in Echometer:

  • 1:1 tool: Software for planning and conducting 1:1 meetings and tracking employee development
  • Retrospective tool: Software for planning and moderating retrospectives and tracking team development through team health checks

Both are independent software solutions, so they can be used separately from each other.

However, they work according to the same principles and aim to achieve the same added value: The continuous improvement of agile teams. In this respect, the simultaneous use of both software solutions is recommended.

Yes, you can assign administration rights to any number of users at both team level and workspace level. Please note the following:

  • Only workspace admins can take out and manage a Echometer subscription for a Echometer workspace.
  • Only workspace admins can create additional teams and name or remove additional workspace admins.
  • Team admins can appoint and remove additional team admins and team members for their team

If an agile team does not yet have much experience with retrospectives, a tool that effectively guides you through the retrospective and offers many templates is recommended:

  • Echometer is known not only for being an intuitive online retro board, but also for offering a very effective guided flow through the retrospective. At the same time, Echometer offers whiteboards that can be flexibly integrated into the retrospective. This makes Echometer very beginner-friendly.
  • Echometer also has extremely versatile and creative templates for retrospectives and team Health Checks that stimulate team reflection. Inexperienced teams in particular are very grateful for the food for thought in Echometer.

This makes Echometer the best software recommendation for beginners with agile retrospectives or Scrum beginners. By the way, you can try out Echometer for free without logging in: Echometer Try out the retro tool

Yes, you can collect and measure the eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) in Echometer's Health Checks and surveys for retrospectives.

The eNPS can be evaluated in Echometer both at team level and across teams. For example, you can use the heat map in the Workspace Health Dashboard for cross-team evaluation.

The Echometer Retrospective software is designed to guide teams through the retrospective process with maximum ease and effectiveness, following best practices.

The steps and their sequence can be customized using the navigation within the retro. By default, a retrospective in Echometer is structured in this way:

  • Icebreaker
  • Review of open measures from past retros
  • Collect feedback (first Health Checks, then open questions)
  • Prioritization of feedback
  • Deriving action items
  • Conclusion of the retrospective with the "ROTI score" (Return on Time Invested)

Additional whiteboards (e.g. for workshops, for analyzing problems or for brainstorming measures) can also be added spontaneously at any point using the Retrospective navigation.

Yes, the Echometer Retrospective Tool offers various export options for retrospectives.

The most popular method is to generate a PDF that contains the feedback, the votes from the prioritization and the measures of the retrospective. It is also possible to share the retrospective via a sharing link.

A summary of the retrospective is also automatically sent to other participants by email after the retrospective, provided they are registered as team members in the team.

Yes, the online retrospective tool Echometer is one of the few retrospective software tools that also optimally supports the recording and tracking of measures:

  • Integration: You can also record measures directly in Jira via an integration.
  • Automatic follow-up: All open measures from past retros appear automatically in the measure review of the next retrospective for tracking purposes. This gives the team an overview of which measures are currently still open and creates a commitment to implementing the agreed measures.
  • Reminders: Measures are assigned to a person responsible, who automatically receives a reminder email when the measure is created so that the measure is not forgotten. In addition, each participant can flexibly receive action reminders via email and manage the action status at any time in the Echometer Retro Tool.

This means that Echometer's tool for team retrospectives has extensive and well thought-out functions for action tracking.

Yes, Echometer allows grouping and prioritizing (voting on points) of feedback on the Retrospective Board.

All participants can simply drag and drop cards onto each other and group them together.

There are 2 modes for prioritizing:

  • In "Live Voting" (the recommended mode), the moderator selects how many votes each participant should have and then starts the hidden voting. As soon as all votes have been cast, the moderator can close the live voting. During the voting, you can see how many votes are still to be awarded. After the voting is closed, the cards in the columns are automatically sorted in descending order so that the cards with the most votes are at the top.
  • In "Facilitated Voting" mode, the moderator simply selects how many votes are allocated to each topic. This mode is only necessary in exceptional cases.

Feedback can be optimally processed in the team using Echometer and the measures derived from it can also be easily recorded in Echometer in direct connection with the feedback.

Yes, with the online retrospective software Echometer you can collect asynchronous feedback on the retrospective in advance via a survey.

This means that obtaining feedback is asynchronous and you can make the most of the time spent together in retrospect.

Yes, absolutely: The online retrospective software Echometer is optimized for distributed teams working remotely and includes various options for interacting with each other in real time.

Both the retrospectives and the whiteboards are synchronized in real time for all participants and you can also optionally display your colleagues' cursors.

Yes, the online retrospective tool Echometer is a free tool that you can try out without logging in.

You can get started right away using this link: Echometer Retro Tool without login.

To invite other participants to your online retrospective in Echometer, you will need to register. Participants only need to enter their email address to join the retrospective, but do not need to log in.

After the retrospective, participants can optionally log in to access the summary even after the retrospective has ended.

Yes, Echometer offers many high-quality templates for retrospectives and the respective steps of a retrospective.

Echometer is the retrospective software tool with probably the most integrated retrospective template ideas and patterns:

  • The retro templates in Echometer contain sample questions for the retro board. These are often creatively based on specific topics in –, such as the "Kart racing retrospective" or the "Time travel retrospective".
  • Some retro templates also contain templates for Health Checks. For example, to measure the Spotify Health Check or psychological safety in the team.
  • When creating a team, you can choose from various team templates for management teams or scrum teams, for example. The team templates then put together a suitable team Health Check for the team.
  • For icebreakers in the retrospective, Echometer has over 50 ideas for sample questions that can be used spontaneously and randomly in a retrospective via a random generator.
  • And then there are whiteboard templates in Echometer, which contain ideas for check-ins, team building and the development of measures.

One of the greatest strengths of the Echometer Retro Tool are the various templates for retrospectives, which can be used as patterns for the creative design of your own retrospectives.

Here is a short list of the samples as an insight into the retrospective templates:

  • Happy, Wondering, Sad
  • Three Little Pigs
  • Team Morale Health Check
  • Easter and Christmas retrospective templates
  • DORA Retrospective
  • 5 agile values Health Check
  • Spotify Squad Health Check Radar
  • Psychological safety Health Check
  • DORA Retrospective
  • Unique retrospective templates such as the "7 Dwarfs Retrospective" or the "Football Retrospective"

If you are interested in the Retrospective Tools templates, take a quick look at the tool: Echometer Retro Templates & Templates

Yes, Echometer is an online tool for retrospectives that offers Jira integration.

With the Jira integration in Echometer, measures from Echometer can be created in Jira boards with a single click.

This makes Echometer a good retrospective software tool if your team is already using Jira.

Echometer is not available in the Atlassian Marketplace, but as separate software via my.echometerapp.com callable.

Yes, Echometer can be called a starfish retrospective tool, because with Echometer you can easily perform the starfish retrospective on an interactive online retrospective board.

Hot tip: If you are interested in the Starfish Retrospective, take a quick look at Echometer. Because the special thing about Echometer is that you can try out the starfish retrospective immediately (time-saving, without logging in) at this link: Echometer Starfish Retrospective Access without login

The Echometer Sprint Retrospective software has very extensive features, both for beginners and experts. The following features form the core of the tool:

  • Structured retrospective flow with integrated whiteboards for flexible brainstorming on individual focus topics
  • Retrospective board for brainstorming, presenting, grouping and voting with live collaboration
  • Moderator tools such as a timer, anonymity settings and control over the agenda step (focused for all participants)
  • Integrated tracking of measures from past retrospectives with automatic resubmission and incl. Jira integration
  • Unbiased brainstorming: Concealed cards on the retro board as well as on the integrated whiteboards prevent participants from influencing each other during the brainstorming session.
  • Simple, quick setup of the tool: Many users report that they were able to start their first retrospective in less than 10 minutes.

The following features are Echometer's unique selling points that are relevant for experienced Scrum Masters and team leaders:

  • Dashboard with retrospective history, including duration of the retrospective, number of participants and ROTI score
  • PDF and Markdown export of the retrospective after completion
  • The retrospective can take place asynchronously (e.g. also via a survey that is sent out before the retro) or in real time
  • Anonymous feedback via survey or on the Retrospective Board
  • Anonymous voting and prioritization of feedback on the retrospective board by awarding points
  • Query or measurement of the "ROTI score" (i.e. Return on Time Invested) after the retrospective for continuous evaluation and improvement of the retrospective by team members
  • Creation of Health Check surveys or pulse surveys as a happiness check and mood barometer in order to recognize trends (e.g. increasing dissatisfaction) in the team at an early stage
  • Health Check KPIs and agile metrics in the analysis dashboard including history
  • Health Check Surveys or pulse surveys also possible across teams

The Echometer Retrospective Tool offers the following features for retrospective template ideas, questions and samples:

  • 50+ Retrospective Template Ideas including Keep Stop Start, Happy Wondering Sad and the Starfish Retrospective
  • 200+ Retrospective Health Check questions and templates
  • Retrospective Icebreaker Library with 50+ fun retrospective check-ins to promote psychological safety and team spirit etc.
  • Whiteboard templates for visual, interactive retrospective icebreakers (including seasonal highlights for e.g. Easter and Christmas)
  • Whiteboard templates to structure and facilitate the creation of measures

Yes, the retrospective software tool Echometer is easy to use even for beginners who are not yet familiar with retrospectives.

Many users report that they were able to conduct their first retrospective in Echometer in less than 10 minutes of preparation - – in no time at all! Even users who are less tech-savvy can join the retrospectives in just a few simple steps.

Thanks to the structured process in Echometer, conducting the retrospective is also very easy. Setting up the Health Check is also not complex and does not require a large learning curve – you can get started very quickly.

On the testimonial page of Echometer you will find numerous confirmed user reviews: Echometer Testimonials

Echometer is the best software tool for retrospectives compared to alternative retrospective software tools such as Retrium, EasyRetro, Reetro, Neetro and TeamRetro for three reasons:

  1. Large selection of creative templates for retrospectives: Users of Echometer confirm that Echometer has a uniquely wide range of retro board ideas.
  2. Echometer has a simple and intuitive structure for retrospectives that guides teams through retrospectives using best practices. This also makes Echometer very beginner-friendly.
  3. Echometer offers a generous free version.

Users of Echometer particularly appreciate the unique function of Echometer to insert Health Checks into their agile retrospectives: These agile Health Checks make a massive contribution to stimulating team reflection and actively involving every team member in the retrospective.

To summarize, even alternative retrospective software tools such as Parabol do not have the unique features of the Echometer retrospective tool, which are both simple and effective. Therefore, it can be said that Echometer is the best software app for conducting agile sprint retrospective meetings.

Yes, in Echometer you can get anonymous feedback from the team.

Echometer is one of the few online retrospective tools that can be used to collect feedback anonymously.

In Echometer, feedback can even be collected anonymously before the retrospective via asynchronous surveys, which is unique among online retrospective tools and distinguishes Echometer positively from tools such as the retrospective software Parabol.

Yes, Echometer offers a generous free version of the online retro tool that can be used permanently free of charge for one team. This includes all functions for team retrospectives.

You only have to switch to a paid version for additional functions such as SSO, multiple teams or an unlimited number of retrospectives.

Further information on the variants of Echometer's retro tool can be found on the pricing page here: Retro-Tool Price List

The greatest strengths of the Echometer retrospective tool are its impact on time savings, participant engagement and productivity.

  • With hundreds of ideas for retrospective templates in combination with the integrated surveys, Echometer makes it very easy to prepare great retrospectives in just a few minutes.
  • Thanks to the guided steps and the playful and interactive retrospective board, implementation is child's play, focused and results-oriented at the same time.
  • The integrated tracking of measures and team health makes it easier to recognize trends in the team at an early stage and ensure that measures from retrospectives are not forgotten

Combined with the unique features of the agile Health Checks and flexible whiteboards, Echometer is one of the best, if not the best, retrospective tool on the market, even better than the better-known Parabol retrospective tool.

Yes, Echometer's retro tool is technically secure and GDPR-compliant.

Several European financial institutions and insurance companies have chosen to purchase Echometer's retrospective tools over other alternatives due to strict regulatory requirements.

The data is stored and securely processed in Germany. The contract for commissioned data processing with details on the technical and organizational security measures of Echometer's processing can be viewed here: https://echometerapp.com/gdpr-and-security/

Echometer's tool for retrospectives offers the following integrations:

  • Jira (for easy tracking of measures from retrospectives in Jira boards)
  • Google login
  • SSO (only in paid version)

Echometer are particularly positive about the increase in the effectiveness of retrospectives and the improved measurability of team development through Echometer.

Here are some officially confirmed quotes from users and customers of the Echometer software tool, all of whom hold leadership positions in agile teams:

Duane Hill, Scrum Master Coach:

  • "Echometer is like a combination of Miro and a really smart retro board. It even provides metrics on the effectiveness of my coaching so I can easily spot trends in team development. I really love this tool – highly recommended for anyone who wants to make their retrospectives more effective!"

Lena Tölke, Agile Coach at Deutsche Bahn Sales:

  • "Thanks to the targeted questions in Echometer, we keep coming up with new insights for our further development in retrospectives and can make these transparent and measurable for all team members."

Clemens Schöne, Scrum Master at Communardo Products:

  • "Echometer is like the combination of Mural and EasyRetro – I am thrilled! With Echometer, remote retros can work much better and even be fun!"

Patrick Böttcher-Exner, management position at Relaxdays GmbH:

  • "One major advantage is that Echometer allows us to carry out and track both remote and on-site retrospectives in one tool."

Carina McLane, Senior Software Developer at Volvo:

  • "As a Scrum Master, it's not about the tools, but this one really makes the work a lot more enjoyable. After two years of experience with Echometer, I can recommend it to anyone who wants to enrich their retrospectives and understand their team better!"

Echometer is the perfect retrospective software tool for busy team managers, team leaders, engineering managers, but also scrum masters and Agile coaches in distributed or hybrid agile teams ("remote teams").

Users particularly appreciate how much time the tool saves for retrospective moderators and how it increases the engagement of participants in the retrospective. Therefore, people who value time savings, retrospective effectiveness and engagement benefit most from the functions of Echometer.

In addition, Echometer offers an easy, playful introduction to retrospectives and is therefore particularly suitable for teams that do not yet have much experience with retrospectives or are just starting out with agile working methods.

The Echometer retrospective software works as follows:

  • Simple preparation of retrospectives using templates for retro formats, surveys and whiteboards
  • Intuitive and step-by-step implementation of retrospectives. Possible both online and on-site. Simply use the QR code on site so that participants can take part via their smartphone with the Mobile Companion app.
  • Automatic follow-up through export functions and integrated tracking of developments and measures including retro archive.

The implementation of a retrospective in Echometer is as follows:

  • The retrospective board allows the agile team to start with a fun welcome screen where they can wait for the rest of the team while playing an interactive game.
  • Once all participants of the retrospective have arrived, continue with an icebreaker question. Echometer has several icebreaker question templates, including both open-ended questions and visual whiteboard templates with workshops and small games.
  • After the icebreaker, you reach the screen for tracking measures: Here, the team reviews the open actions from past retrospectives and decides whether to keep, close or discard the actions. This step is unique to Echometer and significantly improves the quality of the continuous improvement process of agile teams.
  • Then it's on to Team Health Check: all team members answer various questions, for example a question about satisfaction in the team or questions about psychological safety. This type of question increases engagement in the retrospective, even with introverted team members, as well as the creation of agile KPIs to track the mood in the team over time.
  • Then you continue with the retrospective board, where everyone can leave anonymous feedback on open questions – if this has not already been done in advance via a survey. There are hundreds of retrospective templates for different retrospectives on the Echometer retrospective board.
  • Feedback is first written face down on the retro board so that the participants do not influence each other. The moderator can then reveal the feedback column by column.
  • Once the feedback on the retro board has been uncovered, presented to the team and any queries about feedback have been clarified, the prioritization, i.e. the voting, can continue.
  • Voting in Echometer is anonymous. During the voting process, you can see how many votes have already been cast and how many are still open.
  • At on-site retrospectives, you can also vote using your smartphone.
  • As soon as the voting is complete, you can derive measures. To do this, you can either create a measure directly for the feedback or open the feedback on a new whiteboard to analyze the problem in more detail and brainstorm ideas for measures.
  • The brainstorming of measures on a separate whiteboard within the retro is a point of differentiation for Echometer compared to other tools for retrospectives such as Parabol. In Echometer, you can create a separate whiteboard for each topic within the retro and thus optimally control the focus of the discussion.
  • Finally, Echometer enables the retrospective to be concluded by anonymously asking the entire team about the ROTI score on a scale of 0 to 10 (i.e. the "Return on Time Invested"): This helps the team and in particular the retrospective moderator to continuously improve the quality of the retrospectives within the team itself.

Given this unique, structured and flexible retrospective process, combined with the range of functions, Echometer is often described as the best tool for agile retrospectives.

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