What Are Sprint Reviews and Sprint Review Meetings?

What Happens During a Sprint Review?

As the name implies, a sprint review takes place at the end of a sprint. It’s when the team presents the results of the project. The team assesses whether they met their goals, and discuss how they can improve upon the product.

Sprint reviews include the product owner, Scrum team, stakeholders, and a Scrum Master. They are typically held at the end of each sprint and take between one and two hours. During each one, the product owner — who is held accountable for the entire team's work — explains the concept and nature of the work and its overall importance toward achieving the final goal.  Because Scrum methodology promotes collaboration and shared responsibility, every Scrum team member can participate in the review. However, sometimes the teams are so large, the product owner only invites the key stakeholders interested in the output of that particular sprint.

What Is the Purpose of Sprint Review Meetings?

At these meetings, the Scrum team presents the finished product to stakeholders so that they can make suggestions on what changes need immediate attention. Stakeholders are anyone not on the Scrum team that has a vested interest in the project, like investors, customers, sponsors, and so on. The meeting also allows the Scrum team to make better-informed decisions on how to move forward with any changes in the next sprint. Put another way, the main objective of these meetings isn't to give stakeholders a status update. It is held to showcase the working product, referred to as the product increment, and gather actionable feedback on it.

The product increment is the sum of all work completed in one particular sprint. While the goal of each sprint is different, all goals are aligned to serve as an essential step toward achieving the final product or fulfilling the product backlog. When the Scrum team and stakeholders understand each other and work closely together, the overall work becomes more efficient and effective. The methodology enables rapid improvement because it’s easier to identify shortcomings and inefficiencies quickly. This also means that each product increment gets closer to the ultimate goal.

These constant exchanges of information and feedback between the Scrum team and stakeholders ensure that there are no impediments to production. In other words, it creates efficiency and quality. This process also ensures that stakeholders can make their expectations clear to the Scrum team. It also allows everyone to voice concerns as they arise.

Difference Between a Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective 

A sprint review is a formal meeting between the Scrum team and stakeholders to discuss work completed and to address any concerns. A sprint retrospective focuses more on improving the sprint process as a whole. The retrospective, which takes place once the review is complete, helps identify potential setbacks or mistakes made and find ways to avoid them in future Scrums. Thus, the sprint retrospective acts as a mechanism that enables the Scrum team to evolve and improve throughout each sprint continuously.

The sprint review maintains transparency between the production team and stakeholders that enables the rapid and efficient development of superior products. By contrast, the sprint retrospective is a review of the entire process to ensure the team doesn’t make the same old mistakes.

Overall, the sprint review and sprint retrospective are two essential elements of the Scrum framework. They both ensure transparency within an organization internally and externally, and they both promote a healthy exchange of information, continuous learning, and improvement throughout the production process.

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