Agile Retrospectives for Business Agility

by Kate Megaw, Anu Smalley

Business agility is imperative for organizations to innovate and deliver value to customers in ever-changing markets. Empiricism – Transparency, Inspection & Adaptation - is at the heart of scrum, and key in developing resilient organizations. Traditionally, retrospectives are used at the end of a team’s sprint. However, there are a number of different scenarios where running a retrospective would be valuable to increased agility across the organization.

This session will explore how we can use retrospectives to support the entire organization’s business agility journey; whether it’s your development teams, HR & Marketing, company-wide or even for personal agility. Let’s explore the power of retrospectives and what formats make sense for the different audiences.

Different scenarios for Retrospectives
The Basic Structure of a Retro
Retrospectives for Teams
Retrospectives for Organizations
Retrospectives for Personal Agility

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Presenter(s)

Kate Megaw

Kate Megaw, CST, PMP is the President of The Braintrust Consulting Group where she specializes in working with executives and C-level professionals as well as serving as an Agile Coach and Trainer. Kate is a dynamic Project Management Professional with more than 15 years’ experience in successfully planning, directing, tracking, and managing complex projects. Before co-founding The Braintrust Consulting Group, Kate worked as a project manager for the global leader in Corporate Actions automation. Now she uses her years of experience to guide clients through the transition from a waterfall to an agile delivery model. Kate is client-focused with finely honed communication and presentation abilities, complemented by strong planning, organizational, and people management skills. Kate is a motivator and encourager and is happiest when she breaks through to a client and leads them to the ‘aha’ moment. Before moving to the United States, Kate received her bachelor’s degree in information management from the Queen’s University of Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Anu Smalley

Anu is passionate about coaching and training others, dedicated to helping them achieve professional and personal success. She is also committed to improving the agile community through several activities. She is an active member of the larger Scrum and agile community and enjoys giving back via volunteering at various conferences. She is also a Program Advisor to the Scrum Alliance Events group as they plan, organize, and coordinate various conferences, retreats, and meetups around the world. Anu has extensive experience with large scale agile transformations, integral to the success of the likes of Capital One through her training and coaching expertise. She has established internal agile coaching Centers of Excellence for several clients to allow self-sustained coaching of their agile transformations. She has developed a coaching program specifically designed for evolving organizational leaders. Anu speaks frequently on Product Ownership and Group Facilitation Techniques at conferences both nationally and internationally. An IT professional with over 25 years of industry experience, Anu holds a Master’s degree in Psychology from Osmania University in India and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University, Ohio.