Purpose of Sprint Review

What is the Sprint Review?

Sprint Review is one of the most important Scrum Ceremony. The purpose of Sprint Review Agenda meeting as we generally name it, it is the event that takes place at the end of the sprint.

The whole team gathers to review what is being built. During this ceremony, the scrum team, product owner and stakeholders collaborate and review together on what is being done during the end of the sprint. To be noted, this is casual or we can say it is an informal meeting and not a status update meeting.

Let us dive deep into the details of the Sprint Review.

What is the purpose of the sprint review?

The main purpose of the sprint review purpose is to “Inspect and Adapt”, what is being delivered at the end of the sprint. The whole team gathers and review what is being done. This ceremony is to evaluate the end result of the sprint. The product is being inspected whether it meets the “Definition of done” or not. The definition of done is generally decided at the beginning of the sprint. A potentially shippable product increment is reviewed, inspected and then adapted based on the feedback.

Another purpose of sprint review is to review what is being done and make changes to product backlog to optimize the value.

Sprint Review Meeting Template

Duration of the Sprint Review
The duration of a sprint review meeting totally depends on the length of the sprint. As the length of the sprint is timeboxed, so is the length of the sprint review meeting is timeboxed.

1.    If the Sprint length is 1 week, this meeting should not be more than 1 hour

2.    So for 2 weeks, this meeting should not be more than 2 hours

3.    For 3 weeks, this meeting should not be more than 3 hours

4.    and for 4 weeks, this meeting should not be more than 4 hours

Who all attends the Sprint Review?

Sprint Review Meeting Attendee List:
1.    Product Owner
2.    Scrum Master
3.    Scrum Team
4.    Stakeholders (Optional)
5.    Customers (Optional)
6.    End Users (Optional)

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Sprint Review Meeting Agenda:

Scrum Master sends prior invitations to all the attendees. It is the responsibility of the Scrum Master to make sure this ceremony takes place. Everyone gathers to attend this meeting. Scrum Master facilitates the meeting following the agenda given below:

1.    Start the meeting

2.    How did the Sprint go? Scrum Team starts talking about how the Sprint went, what impediments they faced and how those got resolved.

3.    Demonstration: The Scrum Team demonstrates the potentially shippable product increment, making sure it justifies the definition of done

4.    Inspect and Adapt: The Product Owner along with stakeholder reviews this potentially shippable product increment and provides the feedback

5.    The Scrum team makes note of all the feedback given by the product owner, and other stakeholders

6.    Review Product Backlog: The product owner along with stakeholders, reviews and refines the product backlog for the upcoming sprint.

7.    End the meeting

Sprint Review Meeting Expected Outcome

Below are generally the expected outcomes from this meeting:

1.    User stories accepted by the Product Owner

2.    Feedback noted by the Scrum team

3.    New items get added to the product backlog

4.    Re-prioritization of the product backlog

5.    Product Backlog ready for the next sprint

What is the main purpose of Sprint Review Meeting?

1.    The main focus of the sprint review meeting is “Potentially Shippable Product Increment” This is the deliverable and the end goal of the sprint. The whole meeting should be focussed on reviewing the shippable product increment

2.    Focus on the product and not the process

3.    Second item to focus is to review and update the product backlog according to the changes incorporated due to feedback

4.    Focus on getting the product backlog ready for the next sprint

5.    Conclude the Sprint work

Sprint Review v/s Sprint Retrospective

We already reviewed the purpose of sprint review , but let’s not confuse it with the concluding meeting of the Sprint. The concluding meeting is the Sprint Retrospective meeting. In Sprint Review we focus on the Product more, whereas, in the Sprint Retrospective meeting, we focus on the “Process” instead. It is more about evaluating the process. What went well, what didn’t go well and How can we improve?

It’s is more focused on reviewing the process. We should start doing, what we should stop doing and what we should continue doing. Working on the process, will make the future sprints process better for the whole team.

To understand more about ceremonies, meetings, artifacts and roles in Scrum Framework attends StarAgile Agile Scrum Certification

To put it in simple words:

Purpose of sprint review  is “Inspecting and Adapting the Product”

Purpose of Sprint Retrospective is “Inspecting and Adapting the Process”

Top 5 tips for holding the Sprint Review Meeting

1. Keep a fixed Schedule for Sprint Review Meeting: Sprint Review Meeting is the time for delivery. It is the time when the product will be evaluated. It is very important that the whole Scrum Team is informed prior to the schedule of this meeting. The best practice is to schedule this meeting at the start of the Sprint itself. So, the Scrum Team is focused on completing the work on time and reviews and keeps everything ready for this meeting to occur.

2. Get the team ready for the demonstration: Make sure all the equipment, product details, required credentials, required software, etc. are ready prior to the meeting. Make sure the team members are aware, who will be speaking when during the demonstration. Who will be leading the demonstration, who will be answering queries, who will be noting down the feedback? Getting the team ready beforehand will not only save time but provides a good impression and the team looks much more confident about the product they are building.

3. Keep the meeting Timeboxed: Keep a check on the clock and make sure the meeting goes on time. The best way to manage is to allocate time to each agenda item and have particular speakers to talk during each agenda time. This way speakers are already aware of the allocated time.

4. Keep separate time allocated to Product Backlog Refinement activity: It is very important to get the product backlog ready by the end of this meeting. Right after this meeting, the next sprint should start and a refined product backlog is always required to start the next sprint.

5. Record the meeting and share MOM: As this being an important activity with any meeting, this is important with the Sprint Review meeting as well. Make sure the whole meeting is recorded, and it is important to share Minutes Of Meeting with all the participants involved.

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Conclusion

To Conclude, the Sprint Review is the most important and mandatory meeting to conclude the Sprint Work. The main purpose of sprint review meeting is the Product itself. To avoid deviating from the client’s expectation, this meeting enables transparency for the client and other stakeholders to have a look at the product increment and provide feedback.

As per the changing needs of the customer, the required changes can be made to the product and product backlog itself.

In simple words, this meeting “Inspects and Adapts the Product”.