Four Reasons To Run A Demo Meeting Weekly

In agile software development, teams hold demo meetings to show what they’ve got. It’s a special time, usually in the end of each sprint, to show the client tangible results of the development. When your team should demonstrate a coded, tested and, most importantly, usable piece of software to the stakeholders.

How long and frequent should your review meetings be? There’s no single best answer. It vastly depends on your sprint length. Weekly sprints are usually followed by regular, one hour meetings, while two-week sprints need two hour meetings, and so on.

Why is it so important and what are the reasons for holding regular demos in the first place? Get in the know with our 4 reasons to run a regular, weekly review meeting.

Clients are happy when they know what happens with their projects

Don’t be secretive about your work. Nothing boosts confidence in your work more than showing progress in the form of a working product. Make sure you invite your clients or stakeholders to the weekly demo. They may not be willing to participate every time (this is understandable), but the very fact that you hold it will certainly please them.

Additionally, weekly demos give the team members an opportunity gain a deeper appreciation for the business and marketing side of their product. It gives developers a sense of purpose and common goal. On top of that, seeing the reactions of stakeholders, answering their possible questions and getting feedback on the product features helps to keep your people on track and even better understand the product.

Team is more motivated to show progress

Clients like to see progress, it’s natural. But the benefits of regular demo meetings extend to your team, too. These meetings motivate people to keep their work organised. During the demo meeting, your scrum team will show what they accomplished during the sprint. However, remember that the demo should only focus on the newly introduced (and working!) features, not on the entire product.

Also, demo meeting contributes to development of team morale. It keeps your peers motivated, and stresses the importance of delivering quality work and working features. Chances are that, if implemented properly, your sprint review may even help to establish some friendly competition between developers or whole scrum teams involved. It keeps everyone up to date with what is going on in the project and where it’s heading.

Team is more motivated to present better in front of a client

Regular demo meetings, on top of all the product-focused advantages, offer something more — an opportunity to hone your team’s presentation skills which, in agile development, always come in handy.

Demo meetings are usually quite informal, and typically governed by tacit, but strict rules. Among other things, the use of PowerPoint is forbidden. This is not without reason. Allowing only a tight time-frame and limited aids for the preparation keeps the meeting from becoming a distraction or a hurdle for the team. This also puts more focus on the product. People presenting in the demo meeting should also, understandably, avoid reading from the script.

Although all these limitations may sound uncomfortable, the ultimate goal is something good: the timid ones overcome their life-long fear of presenting stuff in front of an audience (which includes the client, that is). Ideally, the meeting should never cause your people trouble, and rather become a natural part of every sprint.

It brings transparency to the software company

There is also a business-wise benefit to regular demos: they make your company more transparent. Though natural it seems a rather coveted feature, and one that surpasses even most elaborate forms of marketing. When organising regular demo meetings you are sending out a simple message to your clients: we have nothing to hide and are ready to get you up to speed with the project. This approach will show the stakeholders that their money is well spent and, with new features demonstrated weekly, the progress is tangible.

You client may not be that much interested in seeing the demonstration of every small feature you have been working on for the last sprint. But they will see that the team is committed to delivering and progress is constantly made.

Wrap-up

It wasn’t that long, was it? :) Anyways, here’s the essence. You should hold weekly demo meetings because:

• Clients are happy when they know what happens with their project
• Team is more motivated to show progress and working features
• It’s a good way to introduce elements of friendly competition
• The team is more motivated to present better in front of a client
• They help people improve presentation skills
• They bring transparency to the company

Now let’s get back to work. Our demo starts in 20 minutes!

This article was originally taken from Briisk Blog.