Conducting the Sprint Review
The Sprint Review is a working, collaborative meeting for the Scrum Team and stakeholders to inspect progress and adapt plans for the future. A common mistake teams make in conducting Sprint Reviews is for the Product Owner to deliver a presentation of the work done during the Sprint to an audience of stakeholders. This eliminates one of the most powerful tools in Scrum: frequent stakeholder feedback.
Instead, the entire Scrum Team should approach the Sprint Review as a way to collaborate with stakeholders on the value they’ve created and how they should adapt their future plans in a way that will create even more value.
It’s important to plan the review in advance. For example:
- The team should decide what will be reviewed and discussed. Remember: only work that has met the Definition of Done can be reviewed during the Sprint Review
- Based on what is being discussed at the review, someone on the team, often the Product Owner, will make certain that the correct stakeholders are invited to the Sprint Review
- It’s good practice for the Scrum Team to identify the next important thing they want to learn and plan to get feedback on that
- For every item to be discussed during the review, it’s best if a member of the team is assigned the job of leading and focusing the discussion. Often, the person leading the discussion is the Developer (or Developers) who worked on that item. It’s usually a bad idea for the Product Owner to lead the discussion on all the topics
- Anyone can be the facilitator of the Sprint Review; they can be a member of the Scrum Team, one of the stakeholders, or someone not involved in the project at all. Often, the Product Owner facilitates the Sprint Review since they are the stakeholder representatives for the Scrum Team during the Sprint and they are often best at speaking the customer’s language
There are many different ways to conduct the Sprint Review itself and there are no prescribed formats. However, it important that the purpose of the review is fulfilled.
The Scrum Team and stakeholders should:
- Inspect the outcome of the Sprint
- Discuss the progress toward the Product Goal
- Discuss any changes in the environment, such as changes in the marketplace, customer behavior and customer feedback
- Collaborate on what to do next. Consider what the next most valuable thing to do is and update the Product Backlog
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