How to Measure the ROI of Retrospectives
In a previous article, I addressed the complex issue of teams no longer perceiving the value of retrospectives, while sharing solutions to reconnect with a positive dynamic.
Today, we will continue this reflection by exploring the return on investment (ROI) of retrospectives. After all, "time is money," and ensuring that the retrospective provides a concrete benefit to the teams is essential. However, this is easier said than done, due to two factors.
On the one hand, there are many quantitative and qualitative indicators, each addressing only part of the ROI question. It is therefore crucial to carefully choose the indicators that match your objectives.
On the other hand, the choice of indicators depends on the role and expectations of the person seeking to evaluate the ROI of retrospectives. A manager will not have the same expectations as a Scrum Master or a team member.
Throughout my career, I have had the chance to wear each of these three hats, which is why I'm about to give you some good tips on measuring the return on investment of your retrospectives based on each of the three roles.
In this article, we’ll cover:
Why measure the return on investment of retrospectives?
Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of retrospectives allows you to demonstrate their concrete value to your team — but not only that.
As a Scrum Master, I have sometimes had to justify the time spent on them, because they can be perceived as an obstacle to delivering value, especially by management members looking for tangible results. At the same time, I cannot count the number of times I have heard my teams say they had too many meetings on their schedules. So, a shortcut is quickly taken, and the retrospective is targeted to be reduced or, even worse, removed.
Indeed, your team may spend up to half a day per sprint in a retrospective, so everyone should get some value out of it.
It's also often noted that this issue arises less with other events prescribed by Scrum. Sprint Planning gives the game plan for the next few days, the Daily helps organize around achieving the goal, and the Review showcases the work accomplished. The Retrospective, however, is more abstract: we discuss potential future optimizations — precisely the sort of thing many managers with a more traditional mindset don't want to hear. They generally expect their teams to express their obstacles and propose an action plan to resolve them as soon as possible.
Measuring ROI not only reinforces the credibility of retrospectives as a strategic tool but also motivates teams to engage in the process actively. The good news is that you likely have everything at hand to start doing this today!
So, let's look at two specific types of measures: quantitative and qualitative.
Quantitative Measures for Retrospectives
Most teams have a whole set of metrics available at hand, regardless of the tools they use (Jira, Monday, Azure DevOps, Planisware, etc.). The key is to choose the relevant indicators based on your retrospective discussions and track their evolution. You could also organize a retrospective based on an available metric whose results do not seem in line with the team’s goals.
Here are the measures which, in my opinion, will greatly help you in the short term.
1. ROTI (Return on Time Invested)
ROTI is an activity generally used at the end of a meeting, allowing participants to indicate on a scale of 1 to 5 how well the time was invested during that meeting.
From experience, ROTI is probably the quickest and simplest measure for Scrum Masters to implement. It will give you a first indication of how things went during the retrospective.
💡 Pro tip: Don’t use a scale with "extremes" like “1: It was the worst meeting of my life” or, on the opposite end, “5: It was the best retrospective of my career.” In this case, you will likely get useless results oscillating between 3 and 4 continuously.
Personally, I have been using ROTI at the end of each retrospective for years. When I see relatively low results, I contact the team members to explore the subject further and consider their feedback for the next time.
In parallel, I strongly suggest encouraging your team members to share feedback to reinforce its value. More on this topic in the qualitative measures section of the article.
2. Workflow optimization
When I talk about optimizing the workflow, I don’t mean having more work on your plate. On the contrary, here we want to look at how to deliver the work more efficiently.
Your team may already be wondering how to optimize their daily work, so here are some elements that you can track over retrospectives:
Velocity: This corresponds to the sum of points delivered during sprints divided by the number of sprints. For example: if your team delivered 63 points through its user stories over the last 3 sprints, the formula would be 63/3 = 21 for velocity. Ideally, we would like to see velocity increase over time, representing progress within the team regarding its processes and tools. 💡 Pro tip: Don’t fall into a race-to-deliver dynamic, where teams artificially increase their velocity by overestimating cards just to satisfy upper management. Again, we want to adopt a healthy and sustainable approach in the long run.
Resolution time: The time spent between the start of a task and its delivery. As the team gains maturity and confidence, they should be able to reduce the time spent on tasks. This isn’t just about execution time but also includes the time to collect feedback from users, for example. 💡 Pro tip: At a larger scale, a value stream mapping workshop could be beneficial in addition to the retrospective.
Work in Progress (WIP): The number of tasks in progress simultaneously. Lean thinking introduced the concept of a WIP limit to avoid having too many tasks simultaneously and thus facing fewer bottlenecks. If your team frequently changes focus or struggles to bring cards to completion, this is a measure you may want to track during retrospectives.
3. Action items created and addressed
Action items are good indicators for Agile teams, including Scrum Masters.
“The Scrum Team inspects how the last Sprint went with regards to individuals, interactions, processes, tools, and their Definition of Done. Inspected elements often vary with the domain of work. Assumptions that led them astray are identified and their origins explored.”
They are a cornerstone of the continuous improvement approach. If the team never raises action items, there may be an issue with the quality of discussions or the team’s willingness to improve.
💡 Pro tip: Be careful not to overestimate your capacity by wanting to incorporate too many action items at once, or you may face discouragement. If your team is able to regularly take items into its backlog and address them, then your retrospectives are effective.
Qualitative Measures for Retrospectives
1. Team member participation
In my article dedicated to silent retrospectives, I mentioned symptoms and anti-patterns that could encourage teams to remain silent during retrospectives. Participation is a key indicator of a successful retrospective because it proves two things: the team has enough psychological safety to express itself and it wants to improve. You can measure it by observing the number of items shared by members and the discussions that follow — without going overboard by counting post-its at the end of the retro.
The more open these are, the better the team will identify improvement paths that will make its daily work easier, as mentioned in the “action items” section of the quantitative measures.
💡 Pro tip: Participation also happens through listening and observation, so I encourage you to minimize distractions out of respect for your colleagues. For example, remind everyone to turn on cameras if you are remote or keep laptops closed if you are in person.
2. Cohesion and collaboration between team members
Measuring collaboration among Agile team members is essential to optimize collective performance and achieve common goals. Good collaboration fosters smooth communication, reduces silos, and accelerates decision-making when obstacles arise.
From experience, this is the most complex element to measure as it encompasses various factors rather than a single criterion.
💡 Pro tip: To help in this regard, I suggest looking at Neatro’s team radar, as it will allow you to better gauge these intangible elements, or even turn them into measurable ones. All of this can be done in a dedicated retrospective.
3. Feedback from 1:1s
Managers often seek tangible results to ensure their teams are progressing. Usually not invited to retrospectives, managers can feel distant from the reality of their team. It’s in retrospectives where true exchanges take place.
So, gathering feedback during your 1:1s with team members can be a positive approach without being intrusive. Here are some suggestions:
How do you find the dynamics during your retrospectives?
Do you feel you have enough space to express your points and ideas during retrospectives?
As mentioned in the quantitative measures section, Scrum Masters can also gather feedback from team members to add more context behind a ROTI vote, for example. When these are very low or very high, it may be interesting to ask for more details to adjust or amplify the direction.
Summary table
We have just gone through several useful indicators for measuring the return on investment of retrospectives. Here is a summary table that allows you to identify which ones are generally more effective for team members, Scrum Masters, and managers.
✅ The measure result directly impacts the person’s work
☑️ The person can observe the measure result for informational purposes
Team member | Scrum Master | Manager | |
ROTI | ☑️ | ✅ | ☑️ |
Workflow | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Action items | ✅ | ✅ | ☑️ |
Participation | ✅ | ✅ | ☑️ |
Cohesion & Collaboration | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Feedback from 1:1 | ✅ | ☑️ | ✅ |
Neatro helps teams track the ROI of their retrospectives
As we have seen in this article, a retrospective goes far beyond a simple end-of-sprint meeting. It directly impacts all team members, including managers. Tracking the various metrics will give you a picture of your team’s health, especially in its pursuit of continuous improvement.
Speaking of effective retrospectives! Neatro has been making my life easier for several years now with its ability to capture feedback at the end of my retrospectives via its integrated ROTI.
If you'd like to learn more, take a look at the Neatro retrospective experience. Launch a Neatro presentation demo here.
And if you'd rather take immediate action, start using Neatro for free here.