A new financial year - a new start.... a time to reflect? Anyone for a "retrospective"...

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July 1st is the start of our Finanical year - this has two significant impacts:

  • June becomes very busy as we try to ensure we close out the FY in good shape - and hence limited time to do blogging/look at technology
  • July feels artifically quiet in comparison and you get suckered into believing you have plenty of time to be reflective on what worked and didn't in the previous FY with a view to achieving even "more" this FY.

In reality - July is actually just as busy as any month of the year (Except June!) - and the only real work dip in my year tends to be August when holiday season in the UK really kicks in. I am either on holiday, my colleague is on holiday or my customer(s) is on holiday - you get the idea.

I want to do my best this year to make the most of the relatively quiet August. Sure I want to do some technology - but I also want to help get our team buzzing (a new team of 5 techies made from a 3 + 2 last FY). Something which caught my eye at https://www.spaconference.org/spa2006 was Retrospectives. Norman Kerth did a great session and subsequently I chatted at length to Norman (US based) and then to Rachel (UK based). After hearing some great examples and digging some more I find myself to be a huge fan - despite having never experienced one first hand! And hence my question - do I have any readers who have first hand experiences of retrospectives good or bad they would be willing to share? Would be great if you did...