Sprint Review Anti-Patterns (Hands-on Agile Webinar #9) HD

NEWSLETTER — join more than 20,000 peers: https://age-of-product.com/subscribe/?ref=youtube This Hands-on Agile mini-series addresses 12 familiar Scrum Master anti-patterns: from the agile manager to the team secretary to dogmatism. Let us start with a short refresher from the Scrum Guide. According to the Scrum Guide, a “Sprint Review is held at the end of the Sprint to inspect the Increment and adapt the Product Backlog if needed. During the Sprint Review, the Scrum Team and stakeholders collaborate about what was done in the Sprint. Based on that and any changes to the Product Backlog during the Sprint, attendees collaborate on the next things that could be done to optimize value.” In other words, the sprint review is not a demo but a crucial event to figure out what the next steps are: are we still on the right track? (1) The first sprint review anti-pattern covers not having a sprint review in the first place. All Scrum events are essential for a team’s success — you cannot skip a Scrum event. Junior Scrum teams may be tempted, though, to skip the sprint review. (2) The second sprint review anti-pattern covers the metric-driven reporting session. Here, the team demos every task accomplished, and stakeholders do not take it enthusiastically. Remember, we are not accountants. Having a detailed report on what issues the money was spent does not make our customers happy. (3) The third sprint review anti-pattern covers death by PowerPoint. The participants are bored endlessly by a presentation. Admittedly, we need to check the backlog — but that does not equal using Jira, Excel or PowerPoint. (4) The fourth sprint review anti-pattern covers side-gigs of the engineers. The development team increases the scope of the sprint – without prior consulting of the product owner — by adding unnecessary work to sprint backlog items. (5) The fifth sprint review anti-pattern covers absent developers. It is always the same few members from the development team who participate in the sprint review. (6) The sixth sprint review anti-pattern covers the works-on-my-machine syndrome. The development team demos items that are not ‘Done.’ All work shown during the sprint review needs to meet the definition of done. (7) The seventh sprint review anti-pattern covers that no stakeholders attend the sprint review. This effect creates an unhealthy bubble for the Scrum team due to the disconnect to the stakeholders. (8) The eighth sprint review anti-pattern covers the sprint stage-gate. The sprint review is turned into a stage-gate-like approval process where stakeholders sign off features. (9) The ninth Scrum Master anti-pattern covers the silent treatment. The stakeholders are passive and unengaged — a tricky situation when the Scrum team wants to collaborate with the stakeholders to figure out what to build next. (10) The tenth Scrum Master anti-pattern covers the omniscient product owner, a product owner without any doubt where to go. He or she does not need