Are you searching for SAFe agile retrospective questions? Great, because I have some for you!
Safe Agile Retrospective Questions (Scaled Agile)
The SAFe iteration retrospective
There is one special retrospective in the Scaled Agile Framework SAFethat is called the iteration retrospective. There are some differences to an ordinary Scrum Team Sprint Retrospective, which should not be the focus of this post.
In my view and opinion, overall it is still very similar to a classical retrospective.
An obvious difference here is that you as a team apparently work in a scaled agile context. This means, there are potentially a lot more team’s involved and the agile processes probably are a little more complex compared to individual teams.
This naturally changes the nature of the retrospective. And it leads me to a few SAFe agile retrospective questions that will help you to reflect on your team’s performance.
Some health check items for SAFe teams
The following questions are basically best practices of successful scaled agile framework teams. They are supposed to help you reflect on how well you are doing - and maybe even measuring your subjective progress over time.
Typically, every team member anonymously answers the following questions on a scale from 1 (Disagree completely) and 7 (Agree Completely).
- Vision: “As a team we know exactly what our value contribution to the product vision is.”
- Flow of information: “As a team, we receive all information necessary to achieve our goals.”
- Cross-team-collaboration: “We also work together successfully cross-functionally and across team or departmental boundaries.”
- Customer orientation: “We are aware of our customer's challenges and problems.”
- Leadership & Management: “Our direct managers trust us as a team to solve problems on our own.”
- Self-organisation: “As a team we have enough freedom to organize our work independently.”
- Process: “Our iteration length is just right.”
The anonymous results given to these safe agile retrospective questions are then reflected on in the retrospectives. After checking the results of every item, you might ask: “How do you explain the results? Feel free to also share what you answered.”
By the way, a classic for agile retrospectives in SAFe scaled agile environments is the Spotify Health Check Retrospective (more info at the link). Here you have an insight into some of the possible questions – and can Retro without login in Echometer without registering:
Note: This retrospective format asks for agreement with the given Health Check items on a scale.
- Speed: We get stuff done really quickly. No waiting, no delays.
- Processes: Our way of working suits us perfectly.
- Value: We deliver great stuff! We’re proud of it and our stakeholders are really happy.
- Other items (customizable)
Advantage of this approach
The nice thing about adding some of these health check items into your retrospective and measuring them: You can ask the same safe agile retrospective questions a few months later and see how you developed in clear numbers!
Of course, these numbers are just based on subjective perceptions. But still, they are able to create a regular feeling of accomplishment which is great to foster the agile mindset in teams.
Most Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters run in circles...
...fixing superficial symptoms. Time to use psychology to foster sustainable mindset change.
Conclusion - SAFe Agile Retrospective Questions
The given SAFE Agile Retrospective Questions are obviously some of many foci you might set in our iteration retrospective. I recommend to research for more approaches and regularly iterate on it.
If you are searching for some more retrospective ideas, feel free to have a look at our 32 kickass retrospective formats – the post includes some more examples of questions and health check retrospectives (see above).
