Templates · Essentials

Start, Stop, Continue

Turns the sprint into three lists of behaviours: what to begin, what to end and what to protect.

What it is

Three columns about behaviour, not about events. The format does not ask how the sprint went: it asks what the team should begin doing, what it should end, and what it should keep. Every card is already half an action.

Goal

A small set of changes to how the team works, agreed by everyone, and an explicit list of the practices those changes must not break.

When to use it

• When the team wants decisions and is tired of describing problems.
• After a change of process, tools or people, to sort what the change should keep.
• When time is short: the cards are brief and close to actions.
• With a team that already knows its problems well.

When to pick another format

The format is binary: a practice starts or stops. When the honest answer is “a little more” or “a little less”, use Starfish or KALM. It also leaves no room for an account of what happened, or for feelings. After an eventful sprint, start from Went well, To improve, Action ideas or from Mad, Sad, Glad.

How to run it

1. Start: ask for new practices worth trying in the next cycle. One practice per card, written as something the team would do, not as a wish.
2. Stop: ask for habits that get in the way and should end now. This is the hardest column to fill. Say aloud that stopping a practice is no judgement of whoever introduced it.
3. Continue: ask what already works and must survive the next change. Do not skip it: it is the list you check new ideas against.

Group similar cards, vote across the three columns, then discuss the most voted. A card of Start or Stop becomes an action once it has an owner and a date. Limit what the team starts at once, and check each new practice against Continue before you agree on it.

Columns

To start a retrospective from this template, see Create a retro.