We started this series on remote agile with looking into practices and tools; we explored virtual Liberating Structures, and how to master Zoom. We had a look at common remote agile anti-patterns, and we analyzed remote Retrospectives and Sprint Plannings based on Liberating Structures. This seventh article now looks into organizing a remote Sprint Review with a distributed team: How to practice the review with virtual Liberating Structures, including and giving a voice to team members, stakeholders, and customers.
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Before we get into recreating the Sprint Review online in a virtual setting, let us first revisit the purpose of the Sprint Review. The Sprint Review is Empiricism at work: inspect the Product Increment and adapt the Product Backlog. The Development Team, the Product Owner, and the stakeholders need to figure out whether they are still on track delivering value to customers. It is the best moment to create or reaffirm the shared understanding among all participants whether the Product Backlog is still reflecting the best use of the Scrum Team’s resources, thus maximizing the value delivered to customers. It is also because of this context that calling the Sprint Review a “sprint demo” does not match its importance for the effectiveness of the Scrum Team.
The Sprint Review is thus an excellent opportunity to talk about the general progress of the product. The Sprint Review’s importance is hence the reason to address Sprint Review anti-patterns as a Scrum Master as soon as possible.
In contrast to other Scrum events, the Scrum Guide goes into detail regarding the Sprint Review. The Sprint Review includes the following elements (quote):
- 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 target and delivery 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 releases of functionality or capability of the product.
“The result of the Sprint Review is a revised Product Backlog that defines the probable Product Backlog items for the next Sprint. The Product Backlog may also be adjusted overall to meet new opportunities.”
Source: Scrum Guide 2017.
The live virtual class on “Remote Agile” addresses tips, tricks, and tools for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Product Owners on how to facilitate agile events effectively. The training class is organized in three blocks of 2.5 hours each within two weeks. You can book your seat right here:
Learn more: 📅 Distributed Agile Training — A Live Virtual Masterclass.
The Sprint Review indeed features a level of bringing everyone onto the same page, although this should not be confusing with a reporting session. Nevertheless, it seems to be tempting to many teams to handle Sprint Reviews precisely like that: As a team, show that you have been a useful entity of the organization by delivering the feature requests to the stakeholders that are paying for the team. This attitude tends to prevail in less “agile” organizations that are still in the early phases of a change, often fostered by a traditional management style rooted in the industrial paradigm, thus focused on output and the utility of the individual.
While this scenario is problematic when working co-located, its inherent lack of trust is seriously impeding a Scrum team’s ability to create value for customers in a remote scenario. Scrum is an excellent probe for organizational dysfunctions in normal, more or less co-located corporate life. Moving everything into the virtual realm is like putting the organization’s culture under a microscope: Remote Scrum reveals all shortcomings, problems, and issues at a much faster pace.
Therefore, to mitigate the risk of running a remote Sprint Review, for many Scrum teams applying Liberating Structures is sound business advice. Including everyone in the process, giving everyone a voice in the remote Sprint Review builds the trust to cope not just with the competition of the markets but also with the challenges of working remotely. Hence the following virtual Liberating Structures microstructures offer a useful start to learn, inspect, and adapt how to run a remote Sprint Review.
Consider the following microstructures for the first phase of the remote Sprint Review:
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Consider the following microstructures for the second phase of the remote Sprint Review:
To close the remote Sprint Review, consider running a virtual Mad Tea to identify areas of improvement for the upcoming Sprint Retrospective. Of course, we cannot recreate two concentric circles of attendees facing each other. However, what we can do is use a prompt—a half-sentence that the team members shall complete—and the chat channel to create a quick picture of the team’s sentiment. As the moderator, prepare a few prompts in advance regarding the upcoming Sprint Review, for example, “I think the next Sprint Review should be…” Then post that prompt to the chat and ask the participants to add their answer(s) but not to hit enter. That is done simultaneously by all attendees when the host asks for it. The result is a bunch of suggestions from the stakeholders and the Scrum Team members regarding the upcoming Sprint Review, serving as data for the next Sprint Retrospective.
Learn more about remote Liberating Structures: Remote Agile (Part 2): Virtual Liberating Structures.
Two Liberating Structures can support a remote Sprint Review with a larger team: 1-2-4-All, and Lean Coffee:
There are plenty of Sprint Planning anti-patterns in general. However, I want to point at a few anti-patterns that are particularly relevant for a remote Sprint Review. It is all about embracing the new reality and trusting in people:
Read more: 15 Sprint Review Anti-Patterns Holding Back Scrum Teams.
Sprint Reviews are challenging at the best of times, and moving them into the virtual world compounds the difficulties. Given that the flow of information and the discovery of opportunities is likely to drop at the beginning of a Scrum Team’s journey to remote work, the importance of the remote Sprint Review has just increased significantly. Scrum Team, it is your turn now to overcome these impediments.
What kind of remote Sprint Review have you organized? Please share it with us in the comments.
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At the end of March, we ran a Remote Agile Practices & Tools live virtual class with about 30 participants from all over Europe, the Eastern Seaboard, and Canada. The participants agreed on recording it and make it available to the agile community. We edited the recording slightly; for example, we removed the waiting time during the exercise timeboxes. Otherwise, the video accurately reflects how one way of collaborating with a distributed team using Zoom breakout rooms may work.
Except for three teaching blocks of about 20 minutes in total, the whole Remote Agile Practices & Tools class of 2:45 hours comprised of interactive work:
If you have any questions regarding the class, please let me know via the comments, or contact me in the Hands-on Agile Slack community.
If the video snippet does not play, please watch the video on Youtube: Remote Agile (1) Replay: Practices and Tools for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Product Owners.
Remote Agile (Part 1): Practices & Tools for Scrum Masters & Agile Coaches.
Remote Agile (Part 2): Virtual Liberating Structures.
Remote Agile (Part 6): Sprint Planning with Distributed Teams.
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