Conclusion
The Sprint Review is the key inspect and adapt event for a Scrum Team’s product. Scrum Teams often ask us how to get stakeholders to attend their Sprint Reviews and how to facilitate them better so that the event is more engaging. A simple action they might try is to solicit feedback directly from stakeholders on how to improve their Sprint Reviews.
As we discussed in this chapter, Scrum Teams risk losing stakeholders’ attention and inputs about the product and the Product Goal when the Sprint Review is used as a status update to stakeholders, or the conversations are mostly centered on activity, output produced, and Product Backlog items completed. Likewise, the Scrum Team misses an opportunity to engage with stakeholders in a conversation about value and learn what might be missing from the product when the event is facilitated in this way. As a facilitator, encourage the Scrum Team to be clear about its goals and the objective of the event. Sometimes stakeholders need a reminder and context setting. Also, ask questions to initiate conversation and curiosity from stakeholders before, during, and after demonstrating the Increment.
A second common dilemma Scrum Teams have is what to do in the Sprint Review when they do not have a Done Increment. A facilitator can help the team discuss this situation in its Sprint Retrospective and observe whether it is a recurring pattern. In the Sprint Review itself, a facilitator should be sure to reset expectations for stakeholders and work with the team to make transparent what work was Done and what work was not. The Scrum Guide states that teams should only show work at the Sprint Review that meets the Definition of Done. When a team shares work that is not Done, they risk giving a false impression of progress. However, in our experience, this misses an opportunity for the Scrum Team to get feedback on the progress that has been made during the Sprint that can help them move forward. If a Scrum Team decides to solicit feedback on incomplete work, the facilitator can make it clear that when the Sprint Review is finished, stakeholders are invited to stay with the team and give feedback on work in progress that the team would like to discuss.