Come Komrads & Agile-istas! Let us collaborate together on value and sing in a strong voice the Song of the Retrospective!
This is the fourth lyric in “Dean’s Songs of the Product Owner” and the first based on a traditional Russian folk song, in this instance the “Song of the Volga Boatman.”
Known in Russian as Эй, ухнем! (pronounced Ey, ukhnem!) or in English “Yo, heave-ho!”, I’ve titled this tune “The Song of the Retrospective” … a bit of a jab at how we sometimes drag ourselves into this self-introspective meeting we join together in after each Sprint.
Verse 1
Re-tro-spe-ctive!
Re-tro-spe-ctive!
Come one, come all, to’re-tro-spe-ctive.
Re-tro-spe-ctive!
Re-tro-spe-ctive!
Come one, come all, to’re-tro-spe-ctive.
There we’ll talk about our fee-eel-ings.
There we’ll talk about our failings too.
Open and honest
Candid yet blameless
Pull to-get-ther as a Scrum team
Pull to-get-ther as a Scrum team
Verse 2
Re-tro-spe-ctive!
Re-tro-spe-ctive!
Come one, come all,
to’re-tro-spe-ctive.
Finding what we
should be sto-op-ping
Seeking what we
should be star-ar-ting
Purging the broken
Praising what’s work-ing
As we fine tune, our A-gili-ty
As we fine tune, our A-gili-ty
(optional: to the tribe
we sing our song)
Verse 3
Re-tro-spe-ctive!
Re-tro-spe-ctive!
Come one, come all, to’re-tro-spe-ctive.
We will collaborate on quality
We will focus on our delivery
Ay-da, da, ay-da!
Ay-da, da, ay-da!
Working software, our prime priority
Re-tro-spe-ctive!
Re-tro-spe-ctive!
Come one, come all, to’re-tro-spe-ctive.
Re-tro-spe-ctive!
Re-tro-spe-ctive!
I plan on singing this, but until I do, here’s a haunting version of the original song as sung by Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff.
Feel free to offer improvements to the verses above, and even if you don’t, please go ahead and give this post a clap or three.
Петь!