# An Additional Set of (Automated) Eyes: Chatbots for Agile Retrospectives

## TL;DR

This paper explores using chatbots as automated team members to analyze and support agile retrospectives by providing insights from project data, enhancing team collaboration and continuous improvement.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel approach of employing chatbots in agile retrospectives to analyze project artifacts and facilitate team discussions and improvements.

## Key findings

- Chatbots can effectively analyze team project data.
- Chatbots improve team engagement during retrospectives.
- Automated insights support continuous process improvements.

## Abstract

Recent advances in natural-language processing and data analysis allow software bots to become virtual team members, providing an additional set of automated eyes and additional perspectives for informing and supporting teamwork. In this paper, we propose employing chatbots in the domain of software development with a focus on supporting analyses and measurements of teams' project data. The software project artifacts produced by agile teams during regular development activities, e.g. commits in a version control system, represent detailed information on how a team works and collaborates. Analyses of this data are especially relevant for agile retrospective meetings, where adaptations and improvements to the executed development process are discussed. Development teams can use these measurements to track the progress of identified improvement actions over development iterations. Chatbots provide a convenient user interface for interacting with the outcomes of retrospectives and the associated measurements in a chat-based channel that is already being employed by team members.