Templates · Essentials
DAKI (Drop, Add, Keep, Improve)
Sorts the team's practices into what to drop, add, keep and fix, and leads straight to decisions.
- Drop No remaining value — a report nobody reads, a step already automated
- Add A new practice to try, one or two per sprint
- Keep Works today and should be defended under pressure
- Improve Nearly right — needs fixing rather than removing
What it is
Four verbs, one per column: drop, add, keep, improve. The last one sets the format apart: it is the place for what is neither good nor bad, the practices that are nearly right and need fixing, not removing.
Goal
An inventory of the team’s ways of working, each with a verdict, and the decisions that follow.
When to use it
- When processes have piled up and nobody has pruned them.
- After a team has worked together for a while and inherited habits it never chose.
- Around a reorganisation, to decide what to carry over.
- When the team is ready to remove things, not only to add them.
When to pick another format
Drop is blunt. If the team is attached to its rituals, KALM reduces where DAKI removes. The format looks at practices, not at events or feelings: after a difficult sprint, start with Mad, Sad, Glad or Went well, To improve, Action ideas.
How to run it
- Drop: ask what has no remaining value, such as a report nobody reads or a step already automated. A useful test: who would notice if it disappeared tomorrow?
- Add: ask for a new practice to try. The column asks for one or two per sprint.
- Keep: ask what works today and should be defended under pressure.
- Improve: ask what is nearly right. Have people say what exactly is wrong with it.
Group and vote. Drop is the cheapest column to act on: if everyone agrees, the practice ends today, and the action is to tell whoever depends on it. Improve needs the most discussion: agree on what “fixed” looks like before naming an owner. From Add, take few. Read Keep last and check that no decision of the session threatens it.
Columns
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Drop | No remaining value — a report nobody reads, a step already automated |
| Add | A new practice to try, one or two per sprint |
| Keep | Works today and should be defended under pressure |
| Improve | Nearly right — needs fixing rather than removing |
To start a retrospective from this template, see Create a retro.