Why most Sprint Reviews are boring

Five common reasons Scrum Teams hate Sprint Review

Photo by Jud Mackrill on Unsplash

“Can we cancel the Sprint Review for today?” The Development Team asked.

But why would they ask such a question? The Sprint Review is a great moment to have a meaningful exchange with stakeholders, where the Scrum Team has an opportunity to inspect and adapt. That’s what it should be like in theory at least, but unfortunately, it’s not a reality for most teams.

I’ve faced so many scenarios where Scrum Teams would do anything to skip the Sprint Review. Some excuses were:

• We must finish the Sprint.
• We don’t have anything to show.
• Let’s cancel this week, and then we do it next time.
• No stakeholders attend, so we shouldn’t go as well.

These are symptoms of anti-patterns. I came across some reasons which hold the Scrum Teams back from getting the expected benefits during the Sprint Review.

How to fail the Sprint Review

What’s the Sprint Review?

Before we discuss what we should not do during the Sprint Review, let’s understand…