2.1.6. Retrospectives and Process Improvement
Retrospectives (also known as “post-project meetings” and project retrospectives) are often held at the
end of a project or an iteration, at a release milestone, or can be held when needed. The timing and
organization of the retrospectives depend on the particular SDLC model being followed. In these
meetings the participants (not only testers, but also e.g., developers, architects, product owner, business
analysts) discuss:
• What was successful, and should be retained?
• What was not successful and could be improved?
• How to incorporate the improvements and retain the successes in the future?
The results should be recorded and are normally part of the test completion report (see section 5.3.2).
Retrospectives are critical for the successful implementation of continuous improvement and it is
important that any recommended improvements are followed up.
Typical benefits for testing include:
• Increased test effectiveness / efficiency (e.g., by implementing suggestions for process
improvement)
• Increased quality of testware (e.g., by jointly reviewing the test processes)
• Team bonding and learning (e.g., as a result of the opportunity to raise issues and propose
improvement points)
• Improved quality of the test basis (e.g., as deficiencies in the extent and quality of the
requirements could be addressed and solved)
• Better cooperation between development and testing (e.g., as collaboration is reviewed and
optimized regularly)