Retro
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
A retro (retrospective) is when the team looks back at the last sprint and asks three questions: What went well? What sucked? What should we change? It's therapy for teams. Some retros are cathartic breakthroughs where real problems get solved. Others are 45 minutes of 'everything's fine' while everyone avoids eye contact. The best retros lead to actual changes. The worst lead to more retros.
Real Talk
A retrospective is an Agile ceremony where the team reflects on their recent work period to identify improvements. Common formats include Start/Stop/Continue, Mad/Sad/Glad, and 4Ls (Liked/Learned/Lacked/Longed For). Effective retros produce specific, actionable items with owners and deadlines. They're considered the single most important Agile practice for continuous improvement.
When You'll Hear This
"Bring up the deployment issues in the retro." / "We need to actually act on retro items — we've had 'improve testing' on the list for 6 sprints."
Related Terms
Agile
Agile is a philosophy of building software in short cycles, learning from real feedback, and adapting quickly instead of following a massive upfront plan.
Postmortem
A Postmortem is the meeting you have after an incident to figure out what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again.
Scrum
Scrum is a specific recipe for doing Agile.
Sprint
A sprint is a fixed time-box — usually 1-2 weeks — where a team commits to completing a specific set of tasks.
Standup
A standup is a short daily team meeting — meant to be done standing so it stays brief.