Does the Increment needs to be releasable
Hello,
I have a question concerning the increment at the end of the Sprint.
In today’s retrospective the Product Owner asked if we really always need a potentially releasable increment at the end of the Sprint even if we absolutely know that we will not release in the next months. He thinks we could the time needed to make the tool releasable.
In my opinion the increment needs to be releasable at the end of every Sprint because I don’t want to have Backlog Items like “release version” or even worse, have a complete release Sprint.
What’s your opinion on this topic? Do we always need a releasable Increment at the end of each Sprint? And please don’t forget to tell me why :)
Thank you very much!
Regards
Benjamin
If you look at the Scrum Guide, it gives you the answer very clearly. See "Sprint" under Scrum Events and "Increment" under Scrum Artifacts.
Benjamin - I believe your understanding is in line with the spirit of the Scrum framework. My interpretation is that the Increment must always be kept in "potentially release-able" condition, and in a state that if the Product Owner decides to release the Increment to Production, there would be no additional work needed (i.e extra testing, bug fixing, integration problems, etc.). The Increment is the features delivered in your current Sprint in addition to prior Sprints' features. Release or hardening Sprints are not part of Scrum.
The problem with not keeping the Increment potentially releasable is that you have to go back and fix the issues,, technical debt, or defects in the future, which are always more expensive to fix later. The earlier a problem is addressed, the cheaper it is to fix.
Scrum on!
In today’s retrospective the Product Owner asked if we really always need a potentially releasable increment at the end of the Sprint even if we absolutely know that we will not release in the next months
It sounds like the opportunity to inspect and adapt the product is being deliberately thrown away, and hence there is little point in sprinting at all.
In Scrum, it's important to leave Sprint Planning with the full expectation of having a release-quality increment by the end of the Sprint. The decision whether or not to release ought to be made by the Product Owner at the last responsible moment, depending upon factors in the business environment such as market conditions. Failure to do so increases the leap-of-faith a Product Owner must take before empirical evidence of progress can be demonstrated. Agility is thereby reduced and stakeholder interests are not as well-served as they might be.