Who Should Join the Sprint Review?
Valuable Sprint Reviews should be about closing actionable feedback loops, where the team focuses on effectively integrating stakeholder and user feedback into the product backlog.
The sprint review is the space where the entire sprint's outcome is inspected, and the team, together with the stakeholders, determines future adaptations to the product backlog. This allows the scrum team to inspect the increment and gather valuable stakeholder feedback and relevant information.
The right people must be involved to maximise the value of this event. The sprint review is not just about showcasing the work completed; it's about fostering collaboration, adapting the product to meet evolving needs, and ensuring alignment with the product goal and business objectives.
1. Scrum Team:
The team reviews what was accomplished during the sprint and what has changed in the product environment. Based on the information that emerges from this, the team, together with the other attendees, decides where to go next.
By exhibiting courage and openness, the scrum team should use the sprint review to highlight areas where technical debt accumulates or any other challenges that may hinder product development and discuss strategies for managing it.
Solutions, or at least the intent of exploring the challenges, can be integrated into the product backlog.
2. Users or Stakeholders Representing Them:
Including actual users or their representatives in the sprint review can bridge the gap between the product team and the end-users.
Users can be represented in many ways: team members with specific roles that focus on user experience, stakeholders with a focus on different personas or target groups, data about product interactions, and, in some cases, user representatives.
The team should focus on effectively integrating stakeholder, user, and specialist feedback into the product backlog. This ensures that the product continuously evolves based on real-world input. Without a well-established feedback loop, the product may drift away from user needs and market trends.
Forgetting to whom the product is addressing, what relevant problems we are solving and for whom can lead to low product satisfaction and performance.
3. Leadership:
Relevant product, technical, or even business leadership should be represented at the sprint review in some form or another. This helps build trust and align with the business objectives.
While the sprint review often focuses on what was accomplished in the short term, it's essential to maintain a balance with long-term goals. The scrum team and stakeholders should periodically assess whether the current trajectory will lead to sustainable success.
This involves examining the immediate increment and considering how the work contributes to long-term value creation toward the product goal. Ignoring this balance can lead to a product that may perform well initially but falter over time due to a lack of strategic foresight.
3. Other Relevant or Key Stakeholders:
One of the most critical aspects of the sprint review is managing stakeholders' expectations and using this inspection and adaptation opportunity to build trust.
Involving a diverse group of participants in the sprint review enriches the discussion and broadens the perspective on the product's development.
The scrum framework emphasises the importance of transparency, inspection, and adaptation. By including these varied voices, the team can ensure that the product evolves in a way that meets both the market's needs and the stakeholders' expectations.
As the industry evolves, being open to new ideas and approaches during the sprint review will be vital to maintaining business agility.