Continuous improvement

We get better on purpose, a little at a time, rather than hoping it happens. The engine is a regular retrospective feeding a short list of changes we actually make.

Retrospectives

• Run one on a steady cadence, often fortnightly, with the whole team.
• Rotate who facilitates, so it does not quietly become one person’s meeting.
• Turn talk into a few concrete actions with owners, and put them in the backlog like any other work.
• Keep it safe and honest. The point is to improve the system, not to find someone to blame.

Know whether it is working

Feelings are a fair start; numbers help. We watch a small, well-worn set of delivery measures, often called the DORA metrics:

• How often we ship.
• How long a change takes to reach production.
• How often a change causes a problem.
• How quickly we recover when it does.

Watched over time, as signals rather than targets to game, they tell us whether our improvements are real or just felt.