I've a confession to make.
I love sprint reviews.
A sprint review or demo is so much more than a meeting.
Demos are the cornerstone
on which you can build better software,
stronger teams and a healthier culture.
Hi, I'm Megan Cook, group prod manager
for Jira Software Cloud.
In today's episode, we'll talk about sprint reviews,
the purpose they serve, the attendees and their roles,
and steps for running them.
By now you should know the basics of planning a sprint,
and how to do daily stand-ups.
Now imagine you've reached the end of your sprint.
Alright, it's time to show off your work
and reflect on how things went
at the sprint review ceremony.
Start by gathering everyone from the scrum master,
development team and product owner,
to designers, writers and analysts,
in a room with a screen that everyone can see.
You'll need to block a fair amount of time,
a safe rule of thumb is five minutes per person,
so everyone has five minutes to demo
what they're working on.
Now that you've set the stage,
it's time to kick off the ceremony.
So how do you do a sprint review?
Well there are four key steps.
Review what's done and not done.
Demo the work.
Review key metrics.
Review and revise the product backlog.
Let's take a closer look at what happens during each step.
Beginning with step one, review what's done and not done.
The product owner begins the sprint review
by reviewing the product backlog
and explaining which items are done and not done yet.
Next the development team leads step two,
demonstrating the work they've completed.
Think of this as part of the meeting, like show and tell.
Each member of the team demos what they completed
and answers questions about what was done and why.
It's a great time to celebrate the team
and everyone's accomplishments during an iteration.
However, it's not all celebration.
Earlier the team planned and prioritized this work,
likely with the user's story or ticket,
and now has a chance to review
what's actually being delivered.
Now the team can ask questions
and make observations about the direction
that was actually implemented.
Will it satisfy the customer's problem,
does it account for internal dependencies.
These demos are invaluable
for steering your teammates in the right direction
before they push code to production.
At Atlassian we demo each and every week,
so the team is constantly course correcting
for small decisions before they snowball into big mistakes.
Then in step three, the team reviews the key metrics
that they're working towards.
Ideally you're delivering working software
that does something like improves performance,
drives customer behavior,
or some other measurable outcome.
This meeting is a great time to review these metrics
and make sure that what we demo is going
to move those metrics and get closer to your goals.
The last step is reviewing and revising the product backlog.
Now that the team has seen what has been built,
it's good to take another look at what's up next.
Teams often add new user stories, or remove old ones
as the implementations and intended effects
become clear in the demo.
If new screen needs fresh design or a copy,
we can take this time to kick that project off
with design and new works.
The final result of the sprint review ceremony
is the revised product backlog
that informs the next sprint planning meeting.
If you follow all these steps,
you'll have all the bases covered for sprint reviews
as part of a traditional scrum brainwork.
If you wanna take it one step further,
I'd love to share how at Atlassian
we made this ceremony part of a broader demo culture.
We believe that all product teams should have weekly demos
with the entire team.
Done well these meetings create alignment
across the entire team, shared learning, customer focus
and raises the bar for accountability.
The entire team has a responsibility to ask questions,
challenge and share lessons with the presenter.
It isn't just the job of the manager or a boss.
This creates demos that are collaborative, dynamic,
energizing and informative for all.
So whether you're standing up for your first sprint review,
or you're refining your current practice,
I know these steps will come in handy.
Although sprint reviews happen at the end of a sprint,
it's not the final step,
that's where retrospectives come in.
Subscribe to our channel,
or cruise on over to videos on retrospectives
to learn how to finish your sprint on the right foot.