Just a site where I archive interesting reads I've encountered online
Every codebase carries some amount of technical debt. Every team would like to get better at managing that tech debt.
The first step in managing something is making it visible. A tech debt wall is a simple, effective way to make tech debt visible.
Pete Hodgson wrote a nice article about Tech Debt Walls which can be found here: https://blog.thepete.net/blog/2020/12/01/tech-debt-walls/
Watch the 2020 Webinar week videos here: https://community.xebia.academy/all-courses
I received the following format via the https://retromat.org/ newsletter:
Emoticon Project Gauge (#32) goes Christmas
10 min | Source: Andrew CiccarelliSearch and print images of Santa looking
• shocked / surprised
• nervous / stressed
• unempowered / constrained • confused
• happy
• mad
• overwhelmed
Let each team member choose which Santa reflects how they feel about the iteration. They can also give a short reason, if they want to.
Letter to Santa
20 min | Source: Corinna BaldaufHand out pens and paper. Give the team members 10 minutes to write a letter to Santa Claus making one big wish for the team. When everyone is done, go around the circle and read out the letters. Are there common themes? The following activity will work better if several participants make the same wish.
Wish granted (#50)
15-20 minutes | Source: Lydia Grawunder & Sebastian NachtigallGive participants 2 minutes to silently ponder the following question: ‘Santa grants your wish and it comes true overnight. You come to work the next morning. How can you tell that Santa granted your wish? What is different now?’ Let everyone describe their ‘Wish granted’-workplace. Participants with the same wish can imagine and describe together. (You need breakout rooms for this in a remote setting.)
The more details people describe the more tangible and desirable this future becomes. Keep asking people what they will see, hear, smell, how they’ll behave, … It will lead to better action items.
Be the elf you wish to see in the world
15-20 min | Source Corinna BaldaufAlas, we all know that Santa Claus isn’t real. Invite the team to be their own Christmas elves. What can they do to turn their wishful future into reality. How can they get one step closer? If there are many suggestions, dotvote which action items the team is going to implement.
Emoticon Project Gauge (#32) goes Christmas – again
5 min | source: Andrew CiccarelliReuse the Santa faces from the beginning. This time ask which Santa reflects how they feel about the retrospective.
If you can, spend some more time in each other’s company. Maybe your organization sent out Christmas packages and you can all share the same cookies or drink the same punch together?
inspired by Santa faces.