The Guide to Effective Agile Retrospectives

If you’re tired of having retrospective meetings greeted with groans and heavy, reluctant sighs or feeling like you’re rehashing the same old problems with no signs of improvement, the advice Mark shares with you will help make your retrospectives more effective.

There’s no need to have retrospectives that people hate and aren’t even useful – with a few tweaks, you can have meetings your team will look forward to, and start seeing real improvements and results!

Includes follow-up support emails to reinforce what you learned and help you make real changes right away.

Why This Book?

Our world is changing at a faster rate than ever, and the speed will only increase. Covid-19 gave us a taste of how vital it is to be able to quickly adjust. Scrum helps break change into manageable chunks and then gives us focus, with retrospectives as a critical tool in that arsenal for rapid adaptation. It’s worth learning how to use them properly.

In The Guide to Effective Agile Retrospectives, Mark shares his secrets to creating retrospectives that don’t suck!

You’ll learn about:

● Common misunderstandings about retrospectives – let’s clear those up

● Recommended techniques and activities to keep the meeting fun and engaging

● How to run retrospectives with distributed teams

● Why you need data for your retrospectives – what to gather, not gather, and what it can tell you

● Turning vague ideas like “We need to do better Unit Testing” into concrete experiments

● …and how to help these improvements actually happen

● Remedies for anti-patterns like: “All Talk, No Action”, “Perennial Problems”, and “ScrumMaster Hero”

Why this book? Because Mark was failing at Sprint Retrospectives before it was popular. After years of study and experimentation, his findings are now collected in this Guide so you don’t have to have to suffer the same pain.

Hint: This free eBook, and the accompanying email series, qualify for Scrum Alliance Education Units (SEUs).

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Mark was fantastic. Enjoyed his coaching very well. Course was very interesting.
Robert AOttawa
Mark L was the best instructor I've had.
David SOttawa
Instructor was knowledgeable, great facilitator, fast in finding an edge to applying the principles to our particular circumstances in the organization. A great magician to fit in three days the key aspects of agile foundation and scrum approach so participants can start applying it. The course is a must to all who work in projects.
Luisa VVirtual
The failure-based models used for learning were effective.
Vince RVirtual
Mark did a great job. He is well versed and brilliant. I very much enjoyed him as an instructor. The course was very helpful and I learned a great deal - I will go back ready to make changes to how we are currently operating to add value.
Shana ROttawa
Great job!
Rana ROttawa
Instructor was great, would continue the engaging exercises and involving people in the room.
Hussein RToronto
Really liked it, will recommend to others.
Alexey SToronto
Very interactive and entertaining. I wasn't bored for a second!
Anahita SToronto
Mark is one of the most interesting humans I’ve had the pleasure to meet. As a student, I can tell he genuinely has our interest and development in mind when creating and delivering his workshops. I can’t say enough good things about the practical knowledge I’ve gained taking this training.
Michael RVirtual
Mark appears to be knowledgeable and highly experienced in Scrum and did a great job in creating more clarity for the group on complex concepts.
Ryan RVirtual
He knows his subject well! He respect the different levels of understanding of each participant. He really respect the schedule.
Julie JVirtual
I applaud Mark's view on working in agile. I was able to clearly understand the fundamental core and roles of agile.
Adil SOttawa
Mark's use and incorporation of the Agile process as part of the training course was an outstanding working demostration in practice real-time. His energy, knowledge, examples, were excellent.
Paul RPrivate Client
Mark did an awesome job. He is very knowledgable, helpful, and patient. I will recommend this course for sure.
Jamal EToronto
I've been to a few Scrum courses for the past year and I must say that this was the best course I have attended. Gracefully covered the entire subject with the right depth.
Rafael SToronto
The instructor did an excellent job in my opinion. He did a really good job of focusing on sections where there was more confusion and really helped make everyone feel comfortable to share and ask questions.
Sylvain FVirtual
Mark is a very approachable and friendly instructor and brings some comic relief to his training sessions. He broke down Scrum/Agile so that it was very easy to follow, and always offered opportunities for the class to ask questions. I felt very supported and encouraged while learning about Scrum/Agile and was never scared to ask a question. I am looking forward to another training opportunity to learn from Mark again!
Dana SVirtual
This course has validated what I want to do for the rest of my career.
Diane KVancouver
Appreciated the flexibility of discussing things out of order as team comments took us there. Enjoyed interactive format, no slides. Helpful workbook.
Annette GPrivate Client
Great! Very enthuiastic instructor and made learning a breeze.
Dalbir SKitchener-Waterloo
Mark explained things well. He's nice. There are valuable discussions during the course, that I saw others problems and experiences.
Hoo LKitchener-Waterloo
Training style great. Open to discussions and various viewpoints. Helpful. Wants to make sure we all understand. Takes time to discuss further if required. Manages the agenda/time with group consensus/agreement.
Meredith SToronto
I really enjoyed this course and that is saying a lot. Despite the fact that the course was virtual, it was still engaging and allowed me to get to know many new people. Mark has a way of making points stick through stories and conversation that is both fun and engaging.
Robert YVirtual
It has been a long time where 5 days of work didn't feel like 5 days. The course was so fun, I really enjoyed coming into work.
Cong LVancouver
Fantastic course, fantastic instructor! A perfect mix of discussion and practical exercise that keeps you engaged.
Paul SVirtual
The instructor is very knowledgeable in the subject and kept us motivated and alert during the course. The course itself covers lots of material which is necessary for someone who wants to become a successful scrum master.
Elena RVirtual
I thought the overall course material was excellent and was well present by a very dynamic and thoughful instructor.
Austin DOttawa
Excellent instructor providing clear explanations. The course structure is flawless.
Benoit NMontreal
Lots of information and data for a great walk through about the agile methodology.
Pierre-Michel AMontreal
Insightful material, engaging classroom practice.
Eliza BVirtual
Very knowledgeable instructor about scrum and software development in general.
Elizabeth GOttawa
Interesting and original and knowledgeable.
Liliana MOttawa
Mark was an engaging and passionate instructor. I appreciated his concise explanations, and the time he took after his first day to discuss specifics about my organization with me.
Adam FOttawa
Well organized, skillfully motivates the team and demonstrates excellent practical examples
Hanna MVirtual
Lively, knowledgeable instructor who delivered the material creatively (no powerpoint! ) and made everyone comfortable.
Karen BOttawa
The combination of hands-on practice and excellent facilitation style made this course enjoyable, useful and very applicable to my day to day life as a Project Manager. The content was carefully curated and meaningful discussions were had during the session. It was engaging, interactive and insightful! I would highly recommend Mark and the Agile Pain Relief company for anyone looking to do their CSM training and pass the exam!
Valerie GVirtual
Mark was recommended to me from a colleague and I honestly was delighted of how much I learned from the course. I have been as a project manager for a number of years, and I really felt that I was able to understand how to apply this to my current work and also even how to work within my working style.
Joyce KVirtual
It was a very helpful course and it met my expectations.
Vinicious GVancouver
Mark was highly engaged and collaborative with the class. Helped reinforce my understanding of Scrum and educate me on best practices and tools I can utilize in my work.
Faisal MToronto
Mark is fantastic at keeping the material interested. You can tell he is passionate on the topic and knows his stuff.
Jackie MEdmonton
Mark was a great instructor. He made things really fun and engaging. It wasn't just a boring lecture to sit through for two days. It kept us engaged and we learned a lot. Thanks Mark!
Geeta BVirtual
Mark is great. He speaks loud enough to be understood and knows how to handle a room full of people.
André SPrivate Client
The course itself is a great introduction to the Scrum Master role. It starts with the fundamentals and advances through a successful balance of instruction and interactive exercises. Our instructor - Mark Levison - is obviously an expert in his field and passionate about the subject. He displayed great skill in getting his message across to his students and also in keeping us interested and involved throughout the three day course.
Sean SVirtual
Mark is very well prepared and understands his material in depth. He has a very logical way of looking at questions which can shift people’s understanding in a useful way. If you need to understand “pure” Scrum, this is a good course.
Paul AVirtual
Personable and enjoyable. When subject drift happens he is very quick to refocus the class.
Dustin SEdmonton
Mark is very knowledgable and an excellent communicator. So far my favourite Agile coach.
Fabricio MOttawa
Very informative and up to my expectations. I loved the availability of the instructor.
Nicolas RMontreal
Very engaging way of learning how to be a Product Owner, just like Scrum should be.
Teeba APrivate Client
Mark was fantastic. He really knows how to keep everyone engaged and I found the course really fun. Still subscribe to the belief that learning is done best when you're having fun so thank you :)
Sabrina AVirtual

Your Guide to Everything Scrum

Mark Levison spent 12 years as a ScrumMaster and Coach, helping teams by chance before he started to systemize it. Armed with an insatiable love for research, he has been studying and teaching Agile since 2001, introducing Scrum, Lean, and Agile methodology to a broad range of individuals and organizations. Mark has helped launch Scrum practice throughout Canada including Government of Canada departments, major financial and insurance institutions, healthcare agencies, and leading payroll, HR services, and software companies.

Students and communities benefit from Mark’s more than thirty years of experience in the IT industry and over two decades of Scrum and Agile expertise, as he brings his uniquely fun and effective teaching style to thousands of individuals and teams so they can be more effective.

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