I often see that a sprint review (or sometimes called a demo) consists of the Product owner showing the stories to the team (who already knows them) and to managers who are more interested in the status of the project. I will give you some tips on how to improve your sprint review.
During the Sprint Review, the Scrum Team and stakeholders collaborate about what was done in the Sprint. Based on that and any changes to the Product Backlog during the Sprint, attendees collaborate on the next things that could be done to optimize value.
scrum guide
Tip 1: Invite the right people
Invite the right persons to your sprint review! Persons who can actually add knowledge and insights about the product. After all, you want usable insights and feedback for you delivered software instead of just the opinion of some people.
Tip 2: Focus on the what and why instead of the how
Because you now invited the right persons to your sprint review it is probably a good idea to use them ☺ Your audience can have a solid opinion about the color of your buttons but it is a waste of time to only discuss the color instead of the created value. Furthermore your business should trust the team on that color ☺
Tip 3: Do you still add the most value?
You should analyse if your are adding the most value. The best way to do this is to analyse your backlog with the whole team during a sprint review.
During the Sprint Review, the Scrum Team and stakeholders collaborate about what was done in the Sprint. Based on that and any changes to the Product Backlog during the Sprint, attendees collaborate on the next things that could be done to optimize value.
scrum guide
Tip 1: Invite the right people
Invite the right persons to your sprint review! Persons who can actually add knowledge and insights about the product. After all, you want usable insights and feedback for you delivered software instead of just the opinion of some people.
- Look at the stories in your sprint and decide who can give the best feedback and insights about the value. Invite those people! These are often people not directly related to the project and that is a good thing. It gives you more relevant feedback.
- Make sure you instruct all attendees on the purpose of the meeting. It is important to emphasize that their feedback is used for prioritizing.
- Try to minimize the managers in your session. The sprint review is not a session to give management feedback about project results or progress.
- Make sure there is an alternative moment to give management a status update about the progress.
Tip 2: Focus on the what and why instead of the how
Because you now invited the right persons to your sprint review it is probably a good idea to use them ☺ Your audience can have a solid opinion about the color of your buttons but it is a waste of time to only discuss the color instead of the created value. Furthermore your business should trust the team on that color ☺
- Make sure your stories have the right format so it is clear and understandable what the story tries to archieve. This helps focusing on the what and why.
- Explain how your team's created software adds value. Don't assume everybody understands this by only showing the solution but spent some time in really explaining this to everybody.
- Discuss with the business after each story if the chosen solution does contribute to there business goals (but try not to discuss details of the solution).
Tip 3: Do you still add the most value?
You should analyse if your are adding the most value. The best way to do this is to analyse your backlog with the whole team during a sprint review.
- Use at least 1/3 of your sprint review time (your sprint review time depends on the length of your sprint) to analyse you backlog with the team. A good way is to just show the backlog on the screen.
- Make sure your product owner explains why a certain order is chosen and ask everybody if they understand how the stories add to the increment.
Lets put that into a nice schematic!
When combining these instructions you get something like this:
Show your increment and discuss the created value. Repeat this for every increment. After that, discuss if your team is still creating the most value based on the backlog.
This should help you getting more value from your sprint review. Good luck!
This should help you getting more value from your sprint review. Good luck!