A personal retrospective is a regularly practiced ritual, during which you take time and think about yourself. You reflect on what happened and what is currently happening in your life. You try to learn from these experiences and derive new goals and insights for yourself. To do a personal retrospective you typically have a set of exercises you do. These exercises help you to find the information and extract knowledge and understanding from them.

1. Personal
Retrospectives

8. What did I do
well?

9. What should I
do differently?

10. What did I
learn?

11. What puzzles
me?

13.  Set the Stage
 Gather Data
 Generate Insights
 What to do
 Closing

14. Preparations - Set the Stage

15. Music - Set the Stage

16. Data Source – Gather Data

17. Timeline – Gather Data

18. Timeline – Generate Insights

19. Action Items – What to do

20. Retrospective Letter - Closing

21. Cocktail - Closing

23. Retrospective 2009

24. Work Retrospective

25. 1st Quarter 2010

26. 2nd Quarter 2010

27. 3rd Quarter 2010

28. Retrospective 2011

29. 1st Quarter 2011

30. 2nd Quarter 2011

31. 3rd Quarter 2011

32. Retrospective 2011

33. Personal
Retrospectives

34. Resources
• Kerth NL. Project Retrospectives: A Handbook for Team
Reviews
• Derby E and Larsen D. Agile Retrospectives: Making Good
Teams Great
• The Agile Retrospectives Resources Wiki
(http://retrospectivewiki.org/)
• SE Radio Episode 105: Retrospectives with Linda Rising
(http://www.se-radio.net/2008/07/episode-105-
retrospectives-with-linda-rising/)
• Personal Retrospective: Self-Acquintance and Agility by A. Nies
(http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Personal-
Retrospectives)

35. Images
Winnie-the-Pooh Milne et al. Pu der Bär. Dressler. Zürich 2009
Questions http://www.flickr.com/photos/eoana1/5540490523
Questions http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/0/05/Rodin-Denker-Kyoto.jpg
Anatomy http://www.flickr.com/photos/basicx/5278406071
Music/Set the Stage http://www.flickr.com/photos/tangysd/6816262905
Logos/Gather Data Google Inc / Remember The Milk Pty Ltd
Timeline/Gather Data http://www.flickr.com/photos/chanceprojects/3323969624
Timeline/Generate Insigths http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaycross/2954255026
Goals/What to do http://www.flickr.com/photos/bogdansuditu/2377844553
Letter/Closing http://www.flickr.com/photos/gbaku/3770390554
Cocktail/Closing http://www.flickr.com/photos/fibroblast/830630641
History http://www.flickr.com/photos/41260125@N05/6442838337
Other Images MS PowerPoint ClipArt Gallery

36. Johannes Thönes
johannes.thoenes@googlemail.com
http://blog.jthoenes.net
http://blog.jthoenes.net/personal-retrospectives/
http://twitter.com/jthoenes

37. Personal
Retrospectives