Sprint Review Meetings in Scrum – Objectives, Who Participates, and Why

The main purpose of a sprint review meeting is to:

·       Exhibit the development carried out by the team

·       Get a proper feedback about the work completed until date

·       Collaborate for a smoother functioning of the project

The reviews form a part of the inspecting and adapting process, which is one of the major advantages of scrum. Scrum methodology advocates self-learning. The scrum process supports several processes which help the team members to undertake self-correction activities, and adjudge where the project is heading. The sprint review meeting is conducted after a particular sprint is completed.

Sprint review meeting

Sprint reviews are informal in nature, and primarily held to display the work, in the form of user stories and development tasks, carried out by the team members during the sprint activity. The completed work is demonstrated to the stakeholders. The individuals who have invested funds into the project need to know about the status of the project and how much work has been done, so they can make proper plans to market the product. The review aims to update the stakeholders so they can get an idea regarding the quality and the quantity of development carried out in the project. It aids in increasing the user participation. The stakeholders can accept the work, or reject it in case they are not satisfied with it. They can also reject the work if the user stories fail to adhere to the acceptance criterions specified when the product items are created in the product backlog. The product owner represents the stakeholders’ interests. He or she remains present during the meeting and decides about the work. The stakeholders can attend the review meeting, but they are supposed to function as passive attendees, and not speak or volunteer opinions during the meeting.

 

·       Objectives of the review

-        Present the user stories completed during the sprint to the product owner

-        Have the user stories and tasks accepted as “Done”

-        Rejected and/or incomplete tasks should be transferred back to the product backlog

 

·       Who attends?

The product owner, team members, scrum master, and the stakeholders (only if interested – not mandatory)

 

·       Time boxed to

1 hour per week of the sprint duration/length decided

(I.e. for a 2 week sprint, the meeting should be time boxed to 2 hours, for a 4 week sprint it should be 4 hours, and so on)

 

Roles played by the scrum team members while scrum is being implemented

Several individuals attend sprint review meetings, each having his or her particular interest in the project. The roles of the individuals attending the meeting are explained as follows:

 

1.    Product Owner

The product owner accepts the ownership of the project as far as scrum is concerned, and acts as a “true” owner on behalf of the stakeholders. He or she takes up all the responsibilities, as well as the accountability of the overall team, and represent the entire project to the stakeholders. The person:

-        Presents the product increment activities

-        Provides an insight into the state of the ongoing scrum project

-        Generate a burn down chart displaying the work completed till date

-        Successfully and effectively deliver the views and opinions of the stakeholders to the team members

 

2.    Scrum Master

The main, and the only important role of the scrum master while the project is underway, is to:

-        Facilitate the working

-        Act as a representative of the development team

He or she ensures that scum is properly implemented at all times, in the proper manner, and should make sure that the team members are collaborating while they work. Another role of the scrum master is to resolve difficulties and remove impediments as and when they arise.