microsoft/vsts-extension-retrospectives

microsoft/vsts-extension-retrospectives

Description: An Azure DevOps extension for efficient retrospectives

Language: TypeScript

License: MIT

Stars: 209

Forks: 99

Open issues: 166

Created: 2020-03-30T14:12:34Z

Pushed: 2026-06-08T16:10:28Z

Default branch: main

Fork: no

Archived: no

README:

Retrospective Extension for Azure DevOps

    

Retrospectives is an Azure DevOps extension to perform _smart and efficient retrospectives from within the Azure DevOps._

Retrospectives are an important practice in becoming an effective team, allowing the team to gather feedback and continuously improve based on the feedback.

Research from the 2018 State of DevOps report indicates that elite teams are 1.5 times more likely to consistently hold retrospectives and use them to improve their work. Furthermore, a 2013 meta-analysis on teams indicates that teams that effectively debrief/conduct retrospectives are 20-25% more effective.

Teams often use external retrospective tools, white boards with Post-its, OneNote, etc. to conduct retrospectives. The data then needs to be collated, and any actionable items need to be created in your Azure DevOps pipeline.

The Retrospectives extension allows you to do all this and more from within Azure DevOps.

Table of Contents

• [Retrospectives](#retrospective-extension-for-azure-devops)
• [Retrospective Features](#retrospective-features)
• [Install](#install)
• [Use](#use)
• [Live Sync Troubleshooting](#live-sync-troubleshooting)
• [Best Practices](#best-practices)
• [Contribute](#contribute)
• [License](#license)

Retrospective Features

• Retrospectives in Azure DevOps
• Real time support for distributed retrospectives
• Ability to create Azure DevOps work items associated to feedback
• Create an emailable summary of a retrospective

Install

The extension can be installed from Azure DevOps Marketplace.

Use

Please note: the screenshot examples use light mode and dark mode interchangeably because both are supported!

1. Open Retrospectives Extension

Navigate to the Azure 'Boards' tab in your account on the left hand navigation. Select the 'Retrospectives' tab under 'Boards'.

!A screenshot of the Azure DevOps left-hand navigation. Under the Boards heading, the extension for the retrospective is darkened as though hovered by a mouse.

2. Pick the Team

You are now on the Retrospectives page. Select your Azure DevOps team from the dropdown in the header. You will only be able to select from My Teams.

Retrospectives should be a safe space for team members to share feedback. Therefore, you should not have access to other teams' retrospective boards. All Teams would provide access to see feedback from any team in the project.

If you need to access another team's retrospective board in the project, you will need to be added as a member of that team.

!Screenshot of the Retrospective tool's Team dropdown. In the example the user belongs to only one team, the "Backend Team". The selected team is darkened as though the mouse is hovering over the selection.

3. Create New Retrospective

Create a new retrospective using the 'Create Board' button. If this is your first retrospective for your selected team, then press the "Create Board" button in the center of the screen.

▶ Watch video

!A screenshot of the Retrospective main page. The screen is mostly empty except for the top navigation of the tool. In the center there is a blue button to 'Create Board.'

If you have created a retrospective before for your selected team, then you can select "Create a new retrospective" from the navigation drop down.

!A screenshot of the top navigation in the Retrospective tool, where the 'Board Actions' menu has been opened. The first option in the dropdown is the 'Create new retrospective.'

4. Choose Your Retrospective Settings

When you select Create Board or Create new retrospective as above, you will see the following dialog:

![A screenshot showing the modal box that controls the initial settings for creating a retrospective board. The settings include: a text field for title of the retrospective; a number input box for maximum votes per person; a checkbox to include a Team Assessment; a checkbox to obscure the feedback of others during the Collect Phase; a checkbox to include Retrospective Prime Directive; and a section to pick the different columns to include in the retrospective, either customized or loaded from predefined…