Is it possible to organize a sprint retrospective before sprint review?
Hi all! My question is that is it possible to organize a sprint retrospective before sprint review?
I know that we should also evaluate the issues from sprint reviews at the retrospective meetings. However, in this case, our sponsor cannot attend to the sprint review meetings.
We have two possibilities here:
1. We could organize a sprint review one day before the sprint review. In this situation, people will still be working on the issues while we will do it.
2. We can change the order of retrospective meetings and sprints review meetings. However, I am not sure about it because I have never experienced it.
Thank you for your help in advance
The Scrum Guide says that the retrospective is the last event within a sprint and comes after review.
The retrospective is for the team; whereas, the review is for the team and stakeholders.
If the sponsor cannot attend the review, are you sure they are the right person to be the sponsor, as the sponsor should be the one fully supporting the endeavour?
Why not limit work in progress and continually review it, as it is finished during the Sprint, thereby collaborating more effectively with stakeholders when they are there?
Is it a regular occurrence that the sponsor cannot attend the Sprint Review? If it is, then perhaps the sponsor should find someone who is in a better position to support the team and provide feedback. If it's not a regular occurrence, then perhaps consider moving along with other stakeholders, including asking the sponsor to choose a substitute. Also, if it's a rare occurrence, you can consider moving up the Sprint Review a day earlier, but it would be helpful for the team to be aware of this at Sprint Planning time so they can work to achieve their Sprint Goal by the time Sprint Review happens.
You don't want to hold the Sprint Retrospective before the Sprint Review. What happens at the Sprint Review should be inspected by the team at the Sprint Retrospective. Attempting to inspect the Sprint prior to a key event means that a key event is excluded from the inspection and it becomes harder to talk about ways to improve.