Retrospectives

A retrospective is a short, honest team conversation about how the work went and what to change. We hold one regularly, not only when something goes wrong.

When

• At the end of each project phase (see How we run projects).
• For longer phases, about every 4 weeks.
• After a serious incident; see Report an incident and the review in SOP-001.

How long

Plan 60 minutes for the whole team. Keep it to the team: no customer attendees unless the project manager agrees.

A simple format

Step	Time	What happens
Set the scene	5 min	Agree the period and the goal
What went well	15 min	Everyone adds notes
What did not go well	15 min	Everyone adds notes, about the work and not the people
Pick actions	20 min	Choose up to three changes, each with an owner and a date
Close	5 min	Read the actions back

Rules

1. Be specific: "release notes were late" is more useful than "communication was bad".
2. Blame the process, not people.
3. Keep at most three actions, and do them.

Recording

The project manager writes a short summary in the project folder (PRJ--NN). Actions are tracked in the next status report; see Status reporting. Lessons that apply beyond the project are shared in the closing phase.

Related

• Risk register
• Handover to support
• Definition of done

Owner: Maya Torres - Last updated: 2026-09-15