Definition:
An interim retrospective meetings that happens regularly explicitly reflecting the most important events occurred in previous iterative development cycle is called Heartbeat Retrospective. In such meetings, significant decisions are made on further changes and improvements required to achieve the goal. It is a facilitated meeting, generally by Scrum Master and follows a set format.
It is also called ‘Sprint Retrospective’, ‘Iteration Retrospective’, and has gained a favor in Agile community over the past few years.
Benefits:
- Opportunity to identify the bottlenecks to achieve the iteration and overall goal
- Gives direction to further improve
- Encourages ownership and responsibility
Origin:
- Alistair Cockburn has described ‘work in increments, focus after each’ in ‘Surviving Object-Oriented Projects’ in 1997, however he did not name it
- In the year 2001, Alistair Cockburn mentioned ‘Reflection Workshop’ in the book ‘Agile Software Development’
- ‘Agile Manifesto’ published in 2001 mentions significance of regular retrospectives in one of the principles
- Norm Kerth introduced the term ‘Project Retrospectives’ in his book with the same name in 2001
- Esther Derby and Diana Larsen’s book ‘Agile Retrospectives’ brought a closer description of Heartbeat Retrospective.
Further Reading:
- Agile Manifesto
- ‘Agile Retrospectives’ by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen
- ‘Project Retrospectives by Norm Kerth
