Dave West

Teams use Scrum to solve complex problems by breaking work down into small Increments, doing the work to create that Increment, and then inspecting the results to potentially change future work and pursue different outcomes. Scrum helps teams learn and expand their knowledge and capabilities by incrementally learning by doing work and delivering value. This is the essence of an empirical process.

The cadence and flow of Scrum are easy to understand. Work happens in a Sprint, the Sprint Goal and work are planned at the Sprint Planning event, and the outcomes of the Sprint are reviewed in the Sprint Review. The Sprint Review focuses on Product Increment, which is the tangible output of the Sprint.

Many organizations treat the Sprint Review as a phase-gate, at which time work is “approved.” Doing this reduces the value of the Sprint Review by limiting learning that could improve future outcomes. The best Sprint Reviews evaluate from customers actually using the Product Increment. The review is then based on real data and experience. For a software product, that could mean letting customers use it and collecting data and feedback on their experiences.

Treating the Sprint Review as a phase-gate may do two things:

1. Reduce transparency by hiding unexpected or even negative results from stakeholders. If the Sprint Review is a meeting where stakeholders get to decide if the Product Increment is released, and the Scrum Team is measured on the Product Increment being released, the team has an incentive to hide unexpected news from stakeholders. Not only does this reduce the dialogue between the team and stakeholders, but it also may release “stuff” that is harmful to the organization.

2. Reduce the value of learning by reducing the ability for real customers and users to provide feedback. Everyone may think they know how a user will use a feature, but until they get it in their hands, those ideas are just opinions. By getting users using the Increment as early as possible, that feedback can be discussed in the Sprint Review and add more value to the review.

To improve the Sprint Review, teams should increase the speed of learning within the Sprint and focus Sprint Reviews on sharing insights with stakeholders. This increases the value of the Sprint Review, and it also delivers value to customers faster. Sign-offs and other governance tasks should simply become part of the work done during the Sprint. A great way to ensure transparency is to document the required product qualities in the definition of Done.

De-coupling the planning and review from release decisions provides the team with the flexibility to release when they need to. The learning gathered by doing this provides insights that can power more effective Sprint Reviews and Sprint Retrospectives. Releasing more frequently also puts more pressure on the release process, flushing out impediments and driving improvements.

By focusing the Sprint Review on inspection, the focus of the planning process shifts to getting the most learning by delivering value as soon as possible. Challenges such as quality and governance become opportunities for automation, collaboration, or changes to team composition. The result is a continuous learning process. Sprints provide a cadence that helps reduce the complexity of the transparent process.