Releases
After the update of the Scrum Guide, I see different opinions as to who decides when to release (deliver) the increment.
The 2017 version of the Scrum Guide is clear about that:
"The increment must be in useable condition regardless of whether the Product Owner decides to release it."
The 2020 version of the Scrum Guide says:
"The Scrum Team is responsible for all product-related activities from stakeholder collaboration, verification, maintenance, operation, experimentation, research and development, and anything else that might be required."
That gives us the idea that now, the entire Scrum Team decides when to release the increment.
I'd appreciate it if someone (who knows) explains it.
Apparently, some people were confused about some of the wording in the 2017 Scrum Guide, around when releases were supposed to happen. There were people who believed that releases were only supposed to come at the end of a Sprint, following the Sprint Review. That led to the inclusion of the following statement in the 2020 Scrum Guide revision:
The Sprint Review should never be considered a gate to releasing value.
By removing the burden on the Product Owner to decide to release or not release, that also enables the team to use continuous deployment. If a team or organization is using continuous deployment, no human makes the decision on when to release a software product. Any time a change is committed to the mainline (which may require a human review of the changes), it is deployed. In a good continuous deployment setup, there will be automated checks to ensure the quality of the product prior to deployment and halt the introduction of new defects.
By moving the responsibility to the Scrum Team, the Scrum Guide is more consistent with continuous deployment. However, in cases where the team is using continuous delivery and still needs a human to approve the release, the Product Owner is still likely to be involved. However, I do think that the intent of making the Scrum Team responsible is designed to share the burden and consider all stakeholder perspectives. The Product Owner is primarily representing the customers, and perhaps the end-users, but there may be purely technical reasons to (not) release the Increment.
In reality, for most teams, I don't think that much would change here. If anything, the release decision is no longer gated on one single person. The whole team, including the Product Owner, is more involved through the entire life cycle.
That gives us the idea that now, the entire Scrum Team decides when to release the increment.
I'd suggest that whenever there is a team decision to release:
- The Product Owner is accountable for ensuring that the release is a timely optimization of value,
- The Developers are accountable for ensuring that the work is Done, and
- The Scrum Master is accountable for ensuring that transparency over these matters and their outcomes is achieved
Thank you both for the answers! It does help a lot.
Au sujet de la livraison des incréments d'un sprint, je pose pour avis et clarification ce qui suit:
Le Guide Scrum 2020 indique qu'on peut livrer des incréments aux parties prenantes avant la fin du sprint. Dans ce cas, faut il prévoir une sprint review par incrément livré ou attendre la fin du sprint pour tenir la sprint review?
Mais, s'il ne faut pas organiser une sprint review par incrément livré, on peut donc considérer le dernier sprint comme ceux d'avant et donc éviter la tenue de la sprint review après le dernier incrément à la fin du sprint? Autrement dit, ne pas tenir de sprint review.
faut il prévoir une sprint review par incrément livré ou attendre la fin du sprint pour tenir la sprint review?
Pourquoi ne pas faire les deux? Scrum ne dit pas que vous devez choisir l'un ou l'autre. La valeur peut être publiée plusieurs fois par Sprint.
La revue de sprint est une occasion formelle d'inspecter l'incrément final à la fin du Sprint.