Sprint Review — a 3-min overview
Welcome to Scrum Sutra — a series where I shall share a 3-min overview of each element of Scrum and how it connects with the other elements in the bead to form Scrum Sutra.
Today, I shall talk about Sprint Review.
The purpose of Sprint Review is to inspect the outcome of the Sprint and determine future adaptations. It is a safety net built within Scrum framework as an opportunity to recalibrate your compass and adjust your path toward better alignment. It provides Scrum teams with an opportunity to maximize the value delivered.
The participants include the key Stakeholders and the entire Scrum Team. The event can have a long-lasting positive impact on stakeholder engagement.
The event is timeboxed to 4 hours for a month-long Sprint and shorter duration for a shorter Sprint. This timeboxing helps bring transparency in effectiveness of the event, focus on objective and respect for participant’s time. It is the accountability of Scrum Master to ensure that the event remain within timebox. He also ensures that the Developers understand the purpose of the event, that it takes place in a positive, productive way.
The key inputs to Sprint Review are:
- Done Increment, which is the accountability of Developers
- A highly transparent Product Backlog, including Product Goal, which is an accountability of Product Owner
The Sprint Review should not be considered as a gateway to releasing value.
If any Product Backlog item does not meet the DoD, it is not presented in the Sprint Review. This is to ensure commitment toward the DoD and respect for the time of the Stakeholders.
During Sprint Review:
- The Product Owner presents the Product Backlog evolutions transparent against the long-term Product Goal and adjusts the Product Backlog based on inspection of new opportunities.
- In this event, the Scrum Team lives the Agile Manifesto Principle.
Principle #07 — Working Software is the primary measure of progress
- The Scrum Team presents the result of their work and progress toward the Sprint Goal.
- The entire group collaborates on what to do next, so the Sprint Review provides valuable input to subsequent Sprint Planning;
By actively engaging the stakeholders, they maximize the opportunity to inspecting the increment, and reviewing of how the marketplace has changed or how the potential use of the product might have changed.
This provides an alignment toward the Product Goal; timely, focused, and good quality feedback about product value which reflects in an adapted Product Goal and what is the most valuable thing to do next.
In this event, the entire Scrum Team and Stakeholders remain committed to Product Goal, Scrum Teams respect Stakeholder’s feedback, open to adapt to new opportunities, and open to feedback and sensible adaptation.
That’s a 3-min overview on Sprint Review. Stay tuned to the next in the Scrum Sutra series.
