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Christine Graf

Large Scale Scrum (LeSS): An Overview & Comparison

Imagine you have 3 agile teams working with Scrum and now you want to scale. Scrum is not enough anymore. Well, what's the next step? Various frameworks can be applied for this, including SAFe SAFe, Nexus, and many more. Today, we'll take a closer look at LeSS.

LeSS is SCRUM (definition)

The Scaled Agile Framework LeSS framework attempts to apply the principles and ideals of Scrum in a large enterprise context as simply as possible through defined rules and guidelines. Due to its simplicity, LeSS has received the definition or label of a "barely adequate" framework - but that is not to cast it in a negative light.

7 Advantages of the LeSS Framework

The fundamental focus of LeSS is not to create a new framework, but instead, apply Scrum principles to many teams.

Some of the benefits that can be achieved with LeSS are:

  1. Lower implementation costs by implementing practices that teams are already using in Scrum.
  2. A product ownerwho understands the framework and principles and then bridges the gap between the business and technical teams
  3. Fewer people to deliver a product . LeSS does not add exponentially more roles and overhead.
  4. It provides a complete product view in the focus area
  5. The teams are in direct contact with the customer and other stakeholders 
  6. Continuous improvement is enabled through regular retros and other meetings, which are fundamental processes of the Agile Manifesto
  7. For many organizations, the LeSS approach to scaling Scrum teams may be the next logical step in their journey to Agile scale..

Before we go any deeper, a quick note. We recently had 11 international senior agile practitioners as guests in one of our webinars, asking one question: How do you scale agile methods the right way?

The result of this is the following fantastic video recording that answers some of the key questions when scaling agile, for example:

  • Should you start your agile transformation rather bottom-up or top-down?
  • How do you align leadership on a common goal and vision?
  • How do you choose the right agile framework – and why is that actually not that important?

 My recommendation: take a look! The video is rather long, but every single minute is worth it.

How is LeSS structured? A definition

By definition, Large Scale Scrum is built on principles, frameworks, guides and experiments. The figure showsit. Let's explain with an example: 

Principles: Team X is developing a cell phone. The principle of acting transparently is important to them. Therefore, on the one hand, they work transparently and make regular dailies. In addition, they want to find out exactly where the materials come from that are important for cell phone production to be able to transparently communicate this to customers later. In other words, transparency through and through.

Framework conditions: At the same time, they are continuously working to create the framework that the SCRUM framework sets as an ideal with the agile values: Openness, Courage, Respect, Focus & Commitment. agile values pretends: openness, courage, respect, focus & commitment.

Guidelines: Guidelines for development are the product vision, the technical requirements for the product, but also the way the team works together.

Experimentation: When uncertainties arise, you are in the experimentation area, which is about testing and trying things out. For example, when we want to develop a new feature or tap into a completely new target group. figure shows)

The 10 LeSS principles

LeSS defines 10 principles. They help - if we stick to our example - to develop a cell phone that most closely matches the customer's values and ideas. Here is the list of the 10 principles at a glance:

  1. Large-scale Scrum is Scrum: The cell phone can be developed not only by one, but by several teams, so that the customer is satisfied and the development time is reasonable
  2. Empirical process control: Based on short-term experience, individual functions of the cell phone are continuously adapted and constantly revised
  3. Transparency: our team X decides to openly share weekly team goals in their internal platform from now on. This helps enormously in understanding what everyone is actually working on.
  4. More with less: Basically, experiment with new ideas and learn from them before establishing inert rules that add "ballast."
  5. Whole product focus: Teams have an even greater tendency to sub-optimize their goals than individuals do. Therefore, the biggest challenge for teams is to integrate their work into a product. The "Purpose" of the entire product should therefore be as clear as possible. The teams and individuals are thus empowered to define appropriate sub-goals themselves as needed.
  6. Customer focus: Only teams that work directly with the customer can maximize the real value of the product. Unfortunately, organizations have a tendency to decouple teams from the customer once they start growing. To counteract this, for example, customers are regularly invited to team meetings to provide feedback.
  7. Continuous improvement towards perfection: LeSS is a profound change for many organizations. Note that it does not automatically mean improvement. LeSS empowers the organization to start getting better - and from then on you should continuously optimize. LeSS is a process!
  8. Lean Thinking: Above all, LeSS emphasizes seeing the place of action itself (Gemba), the three-stage learning concept ShuHaR(Shu = imitate, Ha = vary, Ri = define own rules) and respect for people.
  9. Systems thinking: all actions, changes and improvements should always be thought of systemically or in accordance with the system in order to achieve the goals. Example: If I theoretically offer financial bonuses in one team - what does that mean for other teams (i.e., the rest of the organizational system)?
  10. Queuing theory: The basic idea is that in the software world we build up a lot of invisible queues (e.g. requirements documents, untested software) and hardly care about the optimal handling of these queues. Did you know, for example, that when you increase the utilization of a resource from 50% to 90%, the waiting time for new tasks does not roughly double, but rather multiplies? So define WIP limits (work-in-progress), avoid multitasking and large work packages. 

The LeSS frameworks

LeSS offers two configurations: Basic LeSS for two to eight teams (10 to 50 people) and LeSS Huge for more than eight teams (50 to 6,000 people and more).

Source: Less.works

It is recommended to start with Basic LeSS to experiment, gain experience, and receive feedback before moving directly to LeSS Huge. There are two suggested approaches for implementing LeSS Huge:

  • Start with one requirement area at a time within the larger product and focus only on that at first
  • Or gradually expand the scope of work of the team, the Definition of Done and the Product Definition

In this way, a company can build team experience with LeSS, expand in one product area, achieve initial success - and get management support before scaling LeSS across the enterprise.

By the way, talking about agile transformation... one quick hint: Do you want to make sure that you are setting the right priorities in your agile transformation ? 

Fill out our agile maturity assessment for your agile transformation – it only takes 3 minutes! You will even get a benchmark based on the more than 300 participants we already have. Have fun 🙂

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Roles and planning in LeSS

Basic LeSS focuses on the team and the key Scrum roles:

  1. The Scrum Product Owner, who is responsible for the product vision and direction.
  2. the Scrum development teams, who are responsible for product creation and delivery
  3. the scrum master who supports the team in continuous improvement
  4. the role of the manager and how he or she supports the team in removing obstacles or "impediments" to continuous improvement and autonomy (extension to Scrum)

Huge LeSS complements Basic LeSS with the following roles:

  1. The Regional Product Owner of LeSS Huge supports Product Owners and is critical to connect business requirements (financials, etc.) with development teams.
  2. The Area Product Owner specializes in customer-facing tasks and acts as a product owner for product-facing feature teams.

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Meetings in LeSS

The Scaled Agile Framework Product backlog refinement (PBR) meeting

PBR meetings extend sprint planning across focus areas through a series of parallel LeSS sprint executions. The ongoing cadence of these meetings is required in each sprint to understand, discuss, and refine elements and prepare for future sprints. The main activities of PBR meetings are: 

  1. Creation of Epics - i.e. clustering of large topic areas that fit together; in our example, this would be the grouping of sprints from the Design & Usability team.
  2. Clarifying and answering open questions: everyone should have an equal understanding of the product and the client's and colleagues' ideas
  3. Estimating the size of the user story, risks, dependencies: Quasi derivation and detailed planning of the individual topics

The Scaled Agile Framework Sprint Review

Equivalent to Scrum: The Sprint Review is a meeting at the end of a Sprint to assess the completed work in relation to the set Sprint goal. This is about the product itself. Progress is made visible and new areas for action are identified. It makes progress transparent with regard to the product and the goal.

The Retrospective 

Similar to Scrum: The retrospective is a meeting that deals with the collaboration of the team. Improving how the team works together and therefore around improving processes and content. It is also about the interaction between individual developers, the work of the Scrum Master and the communication with the Product Owner. Thus, the retrospective is an important part of a continuous improvement process (CIP).

In Large Scale Scrum, it is sometimes recommended to conduct a "Retro of Retros" - i.e. superordinate across many teams.

Large Scale Scrum – Scrum Master Ratio

How many teams should one Scrum Master have? One may argue that one team per Scrum Master is best - although there are still some disadvantages disadvantages. Generally, the large scale scrum master ratio is 1:1 till 1:3 - one scrum master has one or a maximum of three teams.

When is Large Scale Scrum LeSS the right Agile method?

Large Scale Scrum can be used if you are already working with SCRUM and want to scale Scrum, but also to find the balance between self-organization and rules. 

Bas Vodde once said that he and Craig Larman believe that LeSS is a very good approach because it hits exactly the "sweet spot" between as many specifications as necessary and as few as possible. 

Much like Scrum itself, it is just a process framework that can still be highly customized and varied by the teams that use it. This argument seems plausible.

Illustration: Sweet spot 

In comparison: Large Scale Scrum versus Scrum

LeSS builds on Scrum to support its use in a larger context and to scale it across larger organizations and beyond the one team. So an either or question does not arise. LeSS is the extension of SCRUM. Thus, to implement LeSS, you always need SCRUM. It makes sense to introduce SCRUM first and then switch to LeSS.

In comparison: Large Scale Scrum versus Scaled Agile Framework SAFe®

Although LeSS is becoming more popular in organizations with large software development teams, other scaled agile frameworks such as Scrum of Scrums or Scrum @ Scale have also gained traction. One of the leading frameworks is the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe).

There are many similarities between Large Scale Scrum and the Scaled Agile Framework SAFe®. For example, both start with scaling a Scrum team and incorporating principles such as lean thinking, continuous improvement, and customer focus. 

3 Core differences between Large Scale Scrum and Scaled Agile Framework SAFe®.

  1. Organization: LeSS focuses on simplifying the organizational structure by remaining flexible and adaptable.
  2. Roll: SAFe has additional roles (some say more “overhead” because of this), including Release Train Engineer (RTE), Solution Train Engineer (STE), and Epic Owners.
  3. Implementation: the Scaled Agile Framework SAFe® includes processes, artifacts, and organizational changes that some organizations may not be able to adopt. So you always need to look at which framework fits you and your organization.

For a successful implementation of Large Scale Scrum...

Successful adoption of Large Scale Scrum requires breaking with time-honored assumptions and changing the corporate structure - with all the explosive "boss-level" potential and "loss of face" that comes with making the appropriate change. 

The precondition is therefore that everyone is ready for this change - see also the Change management model according to Kotter or our article (based on existing agile frameworks) on what makes a good agile transformation roadmap,.

Create an attractive vision to work towards - and start many change projects at once, in the spirit of experimentation. 

When the initial goal is achieved, the change is done and the organization adjusts to a new status quo until the next change is imminent. 

This classic approach is similar to the sequential and "big-batch" approach to software development (Illustration), where change is an exception that is tightly managed by many change control bodies.

In LeSS adoptions, there is no change initiative, so there are no change managers. In LeSS, change is continuous through experimentation and improvement - change is the status quo.

What are the steps for a successful implementation?

1. Shift, adapt or change the team culture

We recommend starting with a Scrum team first, until the team and the organization have gained enough experience about the new agile culture and the responsible decision makers initiate the next step. This also reduces the risk of a misguided development.

2. Improving collaboration within teams

Scaled work by multiple teams on a product requires the adoption of agile practices. Practices that make it easier for teams to coordinate with each other are especially important. The early teams still have a lot of experimentation to do as trailblazers for the rest of the organization. 

Once the teams are truly decoupled from the rest of the organization, they can correspondingly make rapid progress in doing so. This can be done quicker and with less risk within a manageable framework.

3. Changes to the corporate structure

Further growth of the agile organization means restructuring across all levels. At this point at the latest, the initiator of the change must involve management. All levels between teams and top management are challenged - and the organizational structure becomes very lean. This is probably the most "painful" part of the process, especially for management.

4. Shift in corporate culture

Applying the Scrum and LeSS frameworks and appropriate agile practices across the enterprise results in an organization-wide learning of the agile culture. The process never stalls because there is no such thing as an optimal agile organization.

An Agile transition with Scrum, LeSS and LeSS Huge requires a far-sighted strategy. It should therefore be accompanied with appropriate consulting and training.

By the way, if you are still looking for a suitable retro board, our article can help you with the topic: Comparing the 6 best retrospective boards

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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.

Further questions?

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