Inspecting and adapting via problem-solving workshops: the SKA experience

The retrospective and the problem solving workshops held at the end of each Program Increment by Agile Release Trains, are significant events that characterise the adoption of the Scaled Agile Framework(SAFe). Their purpose is to address systemic problems that have been identified and prioritised by agile team members and management with the end goal of encouraging learning and growth through continuous reflection and process enhancements. They constitute the fuel of the relentless improvement mindset which is one of the critical pillars of the SAFe House of Lean. In this paper we report on the execution of the retrospective and problem-solving workshops in the context of a large, multicultural, scientific project such as The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO). The analysis describes the biggest challenges we experienced and how the pattern of the workshop (face to face, virtual), the tools and processes followed, the discussed problems and selected improvement items gradually changed over the time elapsed since the adoption of SAFe in 2019. It also assesses the efficacy of retrospective and problem-solving workshops in leading to process improvements and therefore identifies areas that can be adjusted to increase their effectiveness.