Improving agile team learning by improving team reflections

Many Agile proponents encourage reflection as part of the feedback/learning cycle. When we began using Agile practices, including reflection, I discovered that our organization's norms and beliefs tended to discount the value of regular reflection meetings. Many engineers wanted to avoid anything that might be seen as "touchy-feely." Our initial attempts at holding regular reflection meetings for agile teams had mixed results. Some reflections turned into gripe sessions where a lot of venting occurred but nothing changed Other reflections were short and a little too sweet-team members said little and no learning occurred. This paper describes some of our efforts helping teams improve their reflection meetings and relates some of the positive results in my organization as a result of regular reflection. It also discusses techniques for overcoming initial reluctance to take time out to reflect, keeping reflection meetings interesting, and taking reflection to a deeper level.