Sprint retrospective helper

If you're a developer doing agile working with SCRUM etc. and holding regular sprint retrospectives, you've likely experienced the moment when you're supposed to note what went well and what could be improved, only to get a feeling that several important topics have slipped your mind.

A helpful habit is to jot down insights as they happen, while they're still fresh. This ensures you have meaningful notes ready when the retrospective arrives.

The list below serves as a set of prompts and keywords to help trigger your memory and inspire discussion points for the retrospective. It can also be useful for informal project evaluations. This list isn't meant to be prescriptive or exhaustive, simply a helpful guide to stimulate reflection and idea-generation.

Process
standup, meetings, deploy, DoD, control, reproduce, test, plan, demo, keeping track, improve, design, prioritize, results not lost, continuity, handling issues, stabilization, complex, analysis, integration, velocity, timing, flow, pace, think, sprint planning, charts, coverage, start/stop, tendencies, review, progress, feedback, goals, notes, board, stepping on toes, race, hand over, significant events, timeline, consensus, management, senior, anchoring, monitoring, debt, agreement, performance.

Policies
source control, decisions, documentation, decisions, hand over, scope, deadline, quality, staffing, QA, code review, recognition, strategy, vision, risk, bug tracking, issue, automation, analysis, refactoring, activities, accountability, user stories, phases, patterns, architecture, holidays, culture, flow, data creation, silo, usage, bounce, ripple effects, boundaries, PoC, skills, metrics, escalations, completing stuff, training, knowledge, help, manual steps, prototype, risk, cost, analysis, contract, load, on/offboarding, limits.

Work environment
safety, collaboration, work hours, new members, head count, organization, customer, tools, roles, stakeholders, involvement, engagement, uncertainties, environment, optimizations, tasks, motivation, change, skills, food, chaos, familiarity, fun, stress, software, 3rd party, external, actors, energy, air, sit/stand, down time, remote, crash, branch, control, difference, conformance, competition, constructive, freedom, security, fatigue, knowledge, oversight, feelings, blaim, support, initiative, mentoring, interruptions.

Communications
participants, dependence, overview, noise, sync, expectations, errors, report, backlog, requirement specification, availability, members, stakeholder, learning, loops, acceptance, rejection, hours, timeboxing, impediments, design, wireframes, goals, unity, backlog, details, understanding, agenda, conclusions, clarity, blockers, abstract, appreciations, transparency, honesty, creativity, confront, good enough, impact, consequences, questions, ask, feasibility, summary.