Agile Retrospectives

Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great (Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2006)

A practical guide for facilitating retrospectives in agile teams, written by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen with a foreword by Ken Schwaber. The book introduces structured formats and activities for team reflection and continuous improvement. It provides a five-phase model for retrospective facilitation: set the stage, gather data, generate insights, decide what to do, and close the retrospective. Each phase includes multiple activity options, allowing facilitators to tailor sessions to their team’s needs and maturity. The book established retrospectives as a core agile practice and remains the standard reference for facilitators designing effective team learning cycles.