What is Retrospective? — UK Software Development Guide
Direct Answer
A Sprint Retrospective (Retro) is a Scrum ceremony held at the end of each sprint where the development team reflects on the previous sprint and identifies improvements to their process. A typical retrospective format: What went well? What could be improved? What actions will we take? The retrospective is timeboxed (typically 1 hour for a 2-week sprint).
Retrospective in the UK
Retrospectives are a standard part of UK agile software delivery. The GDS Service Standard (Point 8: "Iterate and improve frequently") is directly supported by retrospectives — they are the mechanism for identifying and implementing improvements. For ClickMasters fixed-price agile projects: retrospectives often surface UK compliance considerations early (e.g., "we need to add consent to this flow") that would otherwise become expensive change requests. The retrospective is also where team velocity improvements are tracked — useful data for client reporting and project forecasting.
Related Glossary Terms
React
React.js explained for UK software developers. React (also known as React.js or ReactJS) is an open-source JavaScript library developed by Meta (formerly Facebook) for... UK context and related services.
GRAPHQL
GraphQL explained for UK software developers. GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a server-side runtime for executing those queries, developed by Meta (Facebook)... UK context and related services.
Redis
Redis explained for UK software developers. Redis is an open-source, in-memory data structure store used as a database, cache, and message broker. Unlike disk-based...
Agile
Agile explained for UK software developers. Agile is a set of principles and practices for software development that prioritises iterative delivery, collaboration, ...
Scrum
Scrum explained for UK software developers. Scrum is an agile framework for developing and delivering complex products. It defines three roles (Product Owner, Scrum...
Rest-api
REST API explained for UK software developers. A REST API (Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface) is a web service that follows the REST ar...
Get Expert Advice on Retrospective
Speak with our UK software development experts about Retrospective. Free consultation, transparent pricing, no obligation.