Feedback is very important in tuning software development, but it's also needed in tuning the software development process. It comes in two major forms, introspection and retrospectives. Both involve looking back at what you've done, what went right, what could be improved, but introspection is solo and retrospectives involve the team.

In the "old days," a retrospective was called a project "post mortem," done after the project was finished and the team was about to disperse. A bit late to use the lessons learned in it, don't you think?

From experience and the literature I've read, post mortems are frequently skipped, especially on failed projects. And failed projects may have the most to teach us.

• Wisdom comes from Experience. Experience comes from making mistakes.

• RestrospectiveTechniques

• Singing the Songs of Project Experience: Patterns and Retrospectives by Linda Rising and Esther Derby from [http://www.estherderby.com/articles/rising-derby.pdf Cutter IT Journal] (PDF)

• Restrospective Agility by Tim Mackinnon in [http://www.ratio.co.uk/ov8pdf.pdf Objective View] (PDF)

• http://www.retrospectives.com/ Norm Kerth's website.

• Esther Derby's

  • [http://www.estherderby.com/weblog/archive/2006_03_01_archive.html#114320660266333594 Seven Reasons to Have a Retrospective]

  • [http://www.estherderby.com/weblog/archive/2006_02_01_archive.html#114031552004362330 6 Reasons *not* to have a Retrospective]

  • [http://www.estherderby.com/weblog/archive/2004_05_01_archive.html#108548723203236478 What a Retrospective Ain't]

  • [http://www.estherderby.com/weblog/2007/04/two-more-ways-to-gather-data-in.html Two more ways to gather data]

  • [http://www.stickyminds.com/sitewide.asp?Function=edetail&ObjectType=COL&ObjectId=14358 Five Tips for Retrospective Leaders and Meeting Moderators] and [http://www.estherderby.com/weblog/2009/05/tips-for-retrospective-facilitators.html Tips for Retrospective Facilitators]

• Rachel Davies'

  • [http://www.twelve71.org/blogs/rachel/archives/000752.html Heartbeat Retrospectives]

  • [http://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-retrospectives-davies How To: Live and Learn with Retrospectives]

  • [http://www.methodsandtools.com/archive/archive.php?id=63 Refactoring Your Development Process with Retrospectives]

• Marco Abis' [http://brainscrum.wordpress.com/2006/05/22/retrospectives-in-and-on-action/ Retrospectives IN and ON action]

• Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen (0977616649)

• Ellen Gottesdiener's [http://ebgconsulting.com/Pubs/Articles/TeamRetrospectives-Gottesdiener.pdf Team Retrospectives — for better iterative assessment] looks at the topic from a RUP perspective.

• Bill Wake's [http://xp123.com/xplor/xp0509/index.shtml Some Patterns for Iteration Retrospectives]

• James Carr's [http://blog.james-carr.org/2008/09/04/retrospective-patterns/ Retrospective Patterns]

• Jim Shore's [http://jamesshore.com/Agile-Book/retrospectives.html brief recap] from The Art of Agile Development (0596527675)