Synonyms: UX retrospectives
Retrospective testing is a meeting on a regular basis where the team can discuss the recent working process and define the ways of improving this process. Based on the results of retrospective testing, the team can create an action plan for the future work.
This kind of testing is normally practiced within an Agile or Scrum process and takes a format of a facilitated meeting at the very end of the sprint. All members of the team should be included in the meeting to have an opportunity to discuss all the issues. It is proven that a permanent process upgrade can increase quality and productivity.
The most obvious group to conduct a retrospective in is a product or UX team. It is always an opportunity to evaluate the goals and the approach. Efficiency of such testing experience is growing proportionally to the time that members spend with each other and the trust achieved between them. Sometimes people are not comfortable enough to bring up any problematic issues. In this case you should estimate the roles of participants: nobody should have a total control over the discussion and everyone should feel free to come up with any suggestions.
This is where the retrospective is an opportunity to discuss if the team worked successfully, and can help with some feedback on implementing a new company initiative or strategy. Testing within a leadership team can be conducted on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis.
Sometimes (i.e. once a year) it can be interesting to conduct a retrospective of all the retrospectives. This could show if your retrospective process is working right and you’ve made some improvements based on the resolutions from your testing sessions.
Efficient retrospective can make your sprint process better by providing stronger communication and trust among the team members.