We started this Scrum foundation series explaining we see four underlying concepts of the Scrum framework. In the past series of mails we covered the three pillars of Empiricism, the Scrum Values, and a Self-Managing and Cross-Functional Team.
The concept Done is the fourth of these concepts. It needs a self-managing, and especially a cross-functional team, a team living the Scrum Values, to make it work in a way that it brings the needed transparency with regards to the quality of your solution/product.
👉 A solution (Product/Increment/Service) the team labels as Done, meaning the solution meets the required quality measures, is ready to be released in the hands of the users, in their day-to-day life.
Being Done = meeting the required quality measures = a new Increment exists = a production release is possible.
During each of the Scrum Events, Done should receive the necessary attention and each of the Scrum accountabilities has its role to play.
So how is Done, the Definition of Done important during the Sprint Review?
Remember that the purpose of the Sprint Review is to inspect progress towards the Product Goal and to adapt the Product Backlog as needed.
Imagine a team discussing the product with their stakeholders, including real users, and during the conversation the Developers say: “for this feature we still need to do the security testing; oh and for that one we still need to integrate it with the back-end. This feature is completely finished except for the training materials that we still need to update.”
What does this tell the stakeholders?
For sure that the product is not finished. Also playing in the heads of the stakeholders present will be the big questions how much remaining effort all these open points will be. They see a result that is not ready to be used, and they do not have any idea how much additional work this will bring - because it was expected that what is shown is finished. Instead of bringing transparency, the purpose of each of the Scrum Artifacts, confusion is at play.
Whatever is being presented, shown, demonstrated, or used during a Sprint Review, it is expected to be ready to put in the hands of users. It is expected to be of the expected quality level, that it is Done. Ensure everybody present understands what this means. This is listed in your Definition of Done.
Summary:
During the Sprint Review, the Definition of Done brings transparency on the quality of the solution shown to the participants. Items not Done should not be shown. Items not Done indicate more work is needed.
Prompt:
Together with your Scrum Team, evaluate how you can improve the use of your Definition of Done during Sprint Review to make your feedback session more effective.
I hope you find value in these short posts and if you are looking for more clarifications, feel free to take contact.
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