{"id":16641323,"url":"https://github.com/cmstead/retrospective-smells","last_synced_at":"2026-03-16T11:03:24.793Z","repository":{"id":72521088,"uuid":"173993411","full_name":"cmstead/retrospective-smells","owner":"cmstead","description":"Smells and antipatterns which can negatively impact the quality of your retrospectives","archived":false,"fork":false,"pushed_at":"2019-03-05T20:01:28.000Z","size":130,"stargazers_count":0,"open_issues_count":0,"forks_count":0,"subscribers_count":2,"default_branch":"master","last_synced_at":"2025-01-18T15:24:28.886Z","etag":null,"topics":[],"latest_commit_sha":null,"homepage":null,"language":null,"has_issues":true,"has_wiki":null,"has_pages":null,"mirror_url":null,"source_name":null,"license":null,"status":null,"scm":"git","pull_requests_enabled":true,"icon_url":"https://github.com/cmstead.png","metadata":{"files":{"readme":"README.md","changelog":null,"contributing":null,"funding":null,"license":null,"code_of_conduct":null,"threat_model":null,"audit":null,"citation":null,"codeowners":null,"security":null,"support":null,"governance":null,"roadmap":null,"authors":null,"dei":null,"publiccode":null,"codemeta":null}},"created_at":"2019-03-05T17:45:55.000Z","updated_at":"2019-03-05T20:01:30.000Z","dependencies_parsed_at":"2023-02-26T10:15:40.050Z","dependency_job_id":null,"html_url":"https://github.com/cmstead/retrospective-smells","commit_stats":{"total_commits":9,"total_committers":2,"mean_commits":4.5,"dds":"0.11111111111111116","last_synced_commit":"ec9f24216a9f2fcd7aabb5fd01ade5ad0626ca44"},"previous_names":[],"tags_count":0,"template":false,"template_full_name":null,"repository_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/cmstead%2Fretrospective-smells","tags_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/cmstead%2Fretrospective-smells/tags","releases_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/cmstead%2Fretrospective-smells/releases","manifests_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/cmstead%2Fretrospective-smells/manifests","owner_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners/cmstead","download_url":"https://codeload.github.com/cmstead/retrospective-smells/tar.gz/refs/heads/master","host":{"name":"GitHub","url":"https://github.com","kind":"github","repositories_count":243159166,"owners_count":20245675,"icon_url":"https://github.com/github.png","version":null,"created_at":"2022-05-30T11:31:42.601Z","updated_at":"2022-07-04T15:15:14.044Z","host_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub","repositories_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories","repository_names_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repository_names","owners_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners"}},"keywords":[],"created_at":"2024-10-12T07:46:14.808Z","updated_at":"2025-12-25T11:55:14.643Z","avatar_url":"https://github.com/cmstead.png","language":null,"funding_links":[],"categories":[],"sub_categories":[],"readme":"\n\u003c!-- GENERATED DOCUMENT! DO NOT EDIT! --\u003e\n# Retrospective Smells/Antipatterns #\n#### Insights On Retrospectives by Willem Larsen [@cascadiaWillem](https://twitter.com/cascadiawillem) ####\n\n## Table Of Contents ##\n\n- [Section 1: Introduction](#user-content-introduction)\n- [Section 2: Assumptive Antipatterns](#user-content-assumptive-antipatterns)\n- [Section 3: Process Antipatterns](#user-content-process-antipatterns)\n\n## Introduction ##\n\nEditors note: This was extracted from Willem Larsen's Twitter feed and it reflects work he did at the end of 2018 into the beginning of 2019.\n\nHad fun designing a retro-facilitator training, came up with anti-patterns that seem to break retros or smother their impact.\n\n    \n\n## Assumptive Antipatterns ##\n\nThe following are \"assumptive\" anti-patterns - the expectations that we bring with us into them. I've rendered them as statements of internal dialogue. If you find yourself thinking any of things going into a retro, consider whether or not you can set them aside, or perhaps experiment with testing whether they are truly accurate assumptions.\n\n- **THE SHRUG** - \"It probably doesn't matter.\"\n- **TOUGH IT OUT** - \"It's not that big of a deal. It'll probably go away on it's own if I ignore it.\"\n- **FATALIST** - \"Nobody cares anyway.\"\n- **NICE GUY** - \"I don't want to make anybody uncomfortable.\"\n- **PARTY POOPER** - \"I don't want to ruin the fun that we are still able to have in spit of our issues.\"\n- **THE DEVIL'S POM-POMS** - \"Our team is already great, there's no need to try to improve!\"\n\n    \n\n## Process Antipatterns ##\n\nThe next anti-patterns are process-oriented, rather than expectation/assumptions\n\n- **ORPHANS** - Next actions with no courier/handler name attached to midwife their implementation.\n- **LOST CAUSE** - When the facilitator is responsible for the effectiveness and outcome of the retro.\n- **CONFLICT OF INTEREST** - When facilitator offers data, insights, and next actions.\n- **THE BLOB** - A retro with no timebox, or that consistently exceeds its timebox, even with consent of participants.\n- **TOLD YOU SO** - A retro that generations next actions that we were going to do anyway, from data and insights we already shared going in.\n- **FIRE AND FORGET** - Next actions dropped because they were fundamentally uninteresting - the team agreed on them but didn't believe in them.\n\n### Expansion on Why I Told You So is an Antipattern ###\n\nYou’ll note that I mentioned the same data and insights, meaning other options weren’t discussed, and the same action was decided upon anyway in an empty ceremony. In that case a retro is irrelevant. Retros should uncover unshared data, new insights, etc.\n    \n\n\u003c!-- GENERATED DOCUMENT! DO NOT EDIT! --\u003e\n    ","project_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Fcmstead%2Fretrospective-smells","html_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/projects/github.com%2Fcmstead%2Fretrospective-smells","lists_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Fcmstead%2Fretrospective-smells/lists"}