Variations on the Evidence-Based Timeline Retrospective Method: A Comparison of Two Cases

Project retrospectives can be a powerful tool for process improvement through obtaining new insights. However pure experience-based reflections may lead to incorrect conclusions. Our method, evidence-based timeline retrospectives (EBTR), mitigates this risk by providing a pre-generated timeline that visualises project history based on evidence rather than relying on subjective opinions and biased memories. Through a comparative study of two cases, a set of variation points has been evaluated. The variation points enable configuring the EBTR method to different contexts and retrospective goals. The results indicate that by selecting certain variations the EBTR method can be configured to support either wide assessments (e.g. the overall impact of a new process) or assessments of a specific process area. For example, through using open or semi-structured discussions, or by varying the applied timeline technique.