Being a Scrum Master, I would like to understand if I should request the Development team, specific persons who owned the Stories to do the Demo or it should be the Product Owner who should do the Demo and share the information related to the increment done in the Project. How did the Product Owner gets the knowledge about the increment done by the team and the workflow added, since he is not involved with the team during the regular working days?
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5 Answers
They both have separate roles; each leads a different section of the meeting, with much of it being cooperative. From the Scrum Guide:
- Attendees include the Scrum Team and key stakeholders invited by the Product Owner;
- The Product Owner explains what Product Backlog items have been “Done” and what has not been “Done”;
- The Development Team discusses what went well during the Sprint, what problems it ran into, and how those problems were solved;
- The Development Team demonstrates the work that it has “Done” and answers questions about the Increment;
- The Product Owner discusses the Product Backlog as it stands. He or she projects likely completion dates based on progress to date (if needed);
- The entire group collaborates on what to do next, so that the Sprint Review provides valuable input to subsequent Sprint Planning;
- Review of how the marketplace or potential use of the product might have changed what is the most valuable thing to do next; and,
- Review of the timeline, budget, potential capabilities, and marketplace for the next anticipated release of the product.
The sprint review is more than just a demo. It is an opportunity for the team to review their progress and to make course corrections.
It is also an opportunity for the Scrum Team to engage with a wider audience, usually stakeholders for the product.
How did the Product Owner gets the knowledge about the increment done by the team and the workflow added, since he is not involved with the team during the regular working days?
The best Scrum teams I have worked with will be demonstrating stories to the Product Owner throughout the sprint. As such, there are no surprises for the Product Owner during the sprint review. This allows the team to focus on details, such as reviewing what has been done and what they plan to do in the next sprint.
As for ownership, the whole Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner and Development Team) are involved and so take joint ownership of the ceremony.
answered Oct 10, 2016 at 11:01
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On Lynda a course managing effective Scrum Meetings. It mentions. " The product owner drives this meeting. The rest of the team should be sitting in the background. The developers should listen to how the product owner describes the product. Later, if they have any questions, they should bring them up in Sprint Planning." It also mentions "This is the only activity that has the development team sitting in the background while the product owner acts as the speaker." Any thoughts??? Oct 10, 2016 at 16:07
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Many Product Owners I have worked with do take the lead in the sprint review meeting. A lot of the useful communication is between the Product Owner and the stakeholders. I don't agree that the developers sit in the background though, I think they have every right to participate in the meeting. It is important they don't let the meeting get distracted by technical discussions, but most developers are bright enough to realise the context of the meeting and ensure their discussion is appropriate. Oct 10, 2016 at 16:11
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1@AnurudhSingh The only official scrum rules are the ones contained in the Scrum Guide. Anything else is an unofficial suggestion, best practice, etc. I would be wary of any scrum rule that says, "X person or people should not participate in this meeting." In my case, our team develops a library whose end users are necessarily technical, so it makes sense for the developers to have a prominent role in the review and demo.– PedroOct 10, 2016 at 16:24
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Looks like, it makes complete sense to reference the Scrum Guide for any Guidelines. The rest of the stuff should be treated as a Scrum reference and Scrum best suggestion, as you suggested. Oct 10, 2016 at 16:43
Original Scrum guidance says Sprint review is the Product Owner's place where s/he demonstrate "Team's incremental progress with what Business Value it is achieving".
How did the Product Owner gets the knowledge about the increment done by the team and the workflow added, since he is not involved with the team during the regular working days
As a scrum master I would ask why PO is not involve with team on day to day work? is he managing multiple products? if so this is not the ideal arrangement. as other members have suggested, PO should be available to team all time to answer their questions promptly & that includes demo of the individual stories by developers throughout the sprint.
In my current experience mostly a team member performs the demo but we make sure that we have got appropriate data to show all the use cases affected by the work done. If the team is new and getting in to the process of Agile, it is better PO handles the Sprint Review and Team can learn from it.
Team, PO, or Both, who ever take charge of the sprint review, needs to make sure that appropriate business case is blend in to the demo so that audience can understand the work done and how/what business value being delivered.
Note: In our current implementation we have 15 min max allocated for sprint review where one or more members from exec team will be there. and hence we strictly stick to demoing the work done and getting their feedback on what they have to say. We do Sprint retrospective and sprint planning afterwards where only team & PO meets.
answers to questions like this can not come from a 'manual'. If the PO has never seen the outputs of the sprint before you can't expect them to demonstrate them. Developers or someone who is familiar with the output of the sprint must do that but it is for the PO to comment on what he/she sees and for the rest of the team to listen, take note (literally) and if necessary take the relevant actions. This is not an informal activity and PO's quite rightly won't be amused if the team does not make a note of all comments.
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If a Product Owner is not involved throughout the Sprint by inspecting and providing feedback as items become Done, then that is a serious problem which needs to be addressed. The informal nature of the Sprint Review meeting is that it does not need a strict agenda but rather needs to elicit feedback and foster collaboration. This event is not a phase gate in which the Development Team is given a pass/fail result and marching orders. Oct 19, 2016 at 17:23
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I agree it is never a pass/fail and I also agree it is ideal is the PO reviews items as they are done - but i see many projects where that is not done. In reality (across the board) many teams have far from the 'ideal' PO. Plus the context of this question would be improved by suggesting who the demo is for/ being given to. Again, this will vary. Oct 23, 2016 at 19:35
The best Sprint Reviews I've been a part of are the ones where the entire Scrum Team collaborated to execute the meeting. The Scrum Master would facilitate the call and handle meeting logistics. The PO would summarize sprint goals and accomplishments and lend more in depth business value discussion into the conversations during the actual demo. They were responsible for driving the conversation. The actual demonstration of the sprint deliverables was conducted by the development team. There is no one more qualified to provide that demo than the individuals that actually did the building. It also allows them the opportunity to be included rather than being in an "observer" mode only for the review.
Seeing all components of the scrum team collaborate during the Sprint Review is like all the components of a symphony coming together. The Product Owner "owns" the ceremony as they are accountable for the information being conveyed to stakeholders and feedback being shared. The execution though of the ceremony should be a shared responsibility.
