We do Scrum but…

“We often skip the Sprint Review.”

Are you serious? — episode 10

Does this sound familiar:

• We only plan Sprint Reviews because the Scrum Guide says so
• The Sprint Review often is nothing more than listing what we delivered. Who is interested in that?
• No-one comes to our Sprint Reviews except for the Scrum Team
• Attendants don’t get it anyway
• We are too busy to finish the Sprint
• We have nothing to show

This is why we often skip the Sprint Review.

The above does sound familiar to me. I have seen teams skip the meeting for the reasons mentioned. Obviously you should have the Sprint Review. It is a very important inspect and adapt moment:

“A Sprint Review is held at the end of the Sprint to inspect the Increment and adapt the Product Backlog if needed.” — SG

The Sprint Review is the event to align with stakeholders. Also those stakeholders that you don’t see or speak daily. The Sprint Review will result into a revised Product Backlog and probable items for the next Sprint. Resulting from conversations with all the stakeholders.

This all with keeping in mind the Scrum is based on empiricism:

“Empiricism asserts that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is known.” — SG

At the end of the Sprint you know more than you did when you planned the Sprint. This new knowledge plus the knowledge of all the stakeholders can be shared within the Sprint Review. As a result ideas on the product and outlooks can change, impacting your next Sprint.

This is why the Sprint Review is VITAL within Scrum!

Did you like the article? Then it would be awesome if you’d clap 👏🏻. I am also very keen to learn what you think about this topic.