Blameless Retrospectives
Introduction
Blameless retrospectives, also known as postmortems, started with Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams at Google, but have since been adopted throughout the tech industry. The idea is to have a meeting after an incident or project to discuss what went wrong, what went right, and what can be improved. The goal is to learn from the incident and prevent it from happening again.
As the name suggests, blameless retrospectives are about learning, not finding fault. If something went wrong, we need to understand why it happened and how to prevent it in the future. Blaming someone for the incident doesn't help us learn from it. Instead, we need to focus on the process that led to the incident and how we can improve it.
Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.
-- The Retrospective Prime Directive
Blameless Culture
Having a blameless culture is one of the most important properties for any technical organization. A blameless culture is one where people feel safe to speak up, take risks, and learn from their mistakes. It's a culture where people are encouraged to take ownership of their work and learn from their failures.
If mistakes get punished, people will be less likely to take risks and try new things. They'll be more likely to cover up their mistakes and avoid taking responsibility for them. This leads to a culture of fear and mistrust, where people are afraid to speak up and share their ideas. Issues take longer to resolve, and the organization becomes less innovative and less competitive.
Team trust is one of the most important predictors of team performance. As a developer, you need to trust your teammates to do their job and support you when you need help. You need to trust that your teammates will take responsibility for their work and learn from their mistakes. You need to trust that your teammates will speak up when they see a problem and work together to solve it. You need to step up and take responsibility for your mistakes, learn from them, and move on.
As a junior developer, you may feel like you don't have the experience or knowledge to speak up in a blameless retrospective. You may feel like you don't have anything valuable to contribute, or that you'll be judged for your mistakes. But the truth is, everyone makes mistakes, and everyone has something to learn from them.
When I was about two months into my first job as a software engineer, I merged a code change that completely broke the build. I was mortified. I thought I was going to get fired. But my team was incredibly supportive. They helped me fix the issue, and ended up adding automated checks to prevent it from happening again. It was a great learning experience, and it made me feel like I was part of a team that had my back. They did laugh at me a bit, but they also all shared their own stories of breaking the build. It really does happen to everyone.
Cultivating a Blameless Culture
Being part of a blameless culture requires conscious effort. It is human nature to want to blame someone when something goes wrong. You might be irritated, frustrated, or angry, and you want to vent your feelings on someone. But that doesn't help anyone. It doesn't help you, and it doesn't help the person you're blaming. It just creates a toxic environment where people are afraid to speak up and take risks.
Some ways to cultivate a blameless culture include:
- Focus on Language: Ask how something happened, not why. Use neutral language, and avoid blaming individuals. Focus on the process, not the person.
- Encourage Open Communication: Create an environment where people feel safe to speak up and share their ideas. Encourage people to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and raise concerns.
- Lead by Example: As a leader, you need to set the tone for the team. Be open, honest, and transparent. Admit your mistakes, take responsibility for them, and learn from them. The leader's behavior sets the standard for the team.
- Celebrate Failure: Failure is a natural part of the learning process. Celebrate failure as a learning opportunity, not a personal failing. Share your failures with the team, and show them how your process has improved as a result.
Running a Blameless Retrospective
Holding a blameless retrospective or postmortem is the best way to learn from an incident and prevent it from happening again. The goal is to understand what happened, why it happened, and how to prevent it in the future. The key is to focus on the process, not the person. The blameless retrospective is not about assigning blame, but about learning from the incident and improving the process.
It is typically run as a meeting with the team involved in the incident. The meeting is facilitated by a neutral party, such as a manager or team lead. The facilitator's role is to keep the discussion focused, encourage open communication, and ensure that everyone has a chance to speak. If the incident impacted multiple teams, representatives from each team should be invited to the meeting.
Agenda
A typical agenda for a blameless retrospective includes:
- Introduction: The facilitator introduces the purpose of the meeting and sets the ground rules. The facilitator reminds everyone that the goal is to learn from the incident, not assign blame.
- Timeline: The team reviews the timeline of the incident, from start to finish. The goal is to understand what happened, when it happened, and who was involved.
- Root Cause Analysis: The team discusses the root causes of the incident. The goal is to understand why the incident happened and how it could have been prevented.
- Lessons Learned: The team identifies lessons learned from the incident. The goal is to understand what went well, what went wrong, and what can be improved.
- Action Items: The team identifies action items to prevent the incident from happening again. The goal is to create a plan to address the root causes of the incident and improve the process.
- Follow-Up: The team agrees on a timeline for follow-up and assigns responsibility for action items. The goal is to ensure that the action items are completed and the incident is prevented from happening again.
Retrospective Document
The output of a blameless retrospective is typically a document that summarizes the incident, the root causes, the lessons learned, and the action items. The document is shared with the team and other stakeholders to ensure that the action items are completed and the incident is prevented from happening again.
Conclusion
A blameless culture is one of the most important properties for any technical organization. It is a culture where people feel safe to speak up, take risks, and learn from their mistakes. Such organizations are more innovative, more competitive,, more successful, and more fun to work at. As a developer, you need to trust your teammates, take responsibility for your work, and learn from your mistakes. You need to speak up when you see a problem, work together to solve it, and celebrate failure as a learning opportunity.
When you make a mistake, speak up immediately, take responsibility for it, and learn from it. Don't be afraid to admit your mistakes, ask for help, and learn from your teammates. They've been there before, and they can help you get through it. And when your teammates make a mistake, support them, help them fix it, and learn from it together. That's how you build a blameless culture, and that's how you build a great team.