Common Misconception
Most people treat Sprint Review as a “gate check” forum to release the product into production. Thus, the Sprint Review ends up being a formal meeting with gate-checking checklists to go through so that the product can be sent to production.
What really is a Sprint Review?
- Sprint Review is an informal forum to seek feedback from the Stakeholders
- Intention of the Sprint Review is for the Scrum Team to find out if they are on track to meet the Product Goal, and if not, inspect and adapt the Product Backlog for future Sprints
- Scrum de-links the “go-live” or “delivery to stakeholders” and “seeking feedback”. Sprint Review’s intent is to seek feedback. The product may be delivered to the stakeholders before or after the Sprint Review
Recommendations
- Sprint Review should be a informal discussion between Product Owner, Stakeholders and Developers to discuss improvements in the product and increase the probability of reaching the Product Goal
- Sprint Review should be more like a working session instead of formalized presentations and checklists to go through
- It is better to create a separate gate check forum other than the Sprint Review. If any gate checking is done in Sprint Review, the real intent of getting feedback may be lost
Conclusions
Sprint Review is not a gate checking forum. It is a working session where Scrum Team and Stakeholders collaborate on how better to achieve the Product Goal