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According to the Scrum method, the Review Meeting should take place just after the development period of a Sprint. The purpose of this meeting is to present the Product Owner (PO) with all deliverables that were produced by the Scrum team and she has the participation of the team. During this meeting, the team has the responsibility to show the PO the work that was done, the SM has a responsibility to prevent the meeting from going off topic, and the PO has the responsibility to approve or disapprove the new features shown.

And why is it the team that presents what has been developed? This responsibility is actually one of the most important tasks for the team, and should always be respected. During planning meetings, the team commits to the PO to develop certain items from the product backlog and, at the end of the work cycle, it is the team who must show the results to the PO and take responsibility for what was produced. In addition, the team should also discuss with the PO solutions, and hear suggestions and views on what was presented.

The role of PO in this meeting is to evaluate whether what was produced is consistent with what was expected, and to validate Sprint. For a Sprint to be validated, it is necessary that the functionality delivered by the team meets the goal of the Sprint, which was agreed upon during the Planning Meeting. The fact that some of the Sprint Backlog items may be disapproved by the PO does not necessarily indicate that the Sprint was not successful. If the failed item is not related to the Sprint’s goal, it can still be validated. We just have to keep in mind that if an item is disapproved by the PO, even though part of it may have been approved, the whole task will be returned to the Product Backlog, and no points will be awarded to it. In the next Sprint, depending on the priorities set by the PO, this item can be put back into the Sprint Backlog, with the same estimate as before, and only than completed.

What was said in the post “To release versions during production is like running on asphalt” also applies to this moment in the validation work. Therefore, here at GPE, we follow the following practices: set up a script of the presentation and test the project on a local server. When mounting a roadmap presentation, we try to think of all the steps that should be taken in order to present all of the features produced, allowing the team to review the entire stream and check if something went unnoticed and needs to be reviewed. By performing the test on a local server, the team can simulate the environment that will be used in the presentation and try to identify and correct possible problems of environment configuration. These practices allow the team to have more peace of mind during the meeting and avoids problems where the answer is the now famous “on my computer it was working just fine”.

A final practice should always be used: do not wait for the Review Meeting to contact the PO. The more opinions and impressions collected from the PO during the development process, the greater the chance that the Sprint Backlog item will be approved.

Any other question? Do not forget to send your comments and watch the video lesson about this topic on our YouTube channel, Scrum University!

The post What is the Sprint Review Meeting? – Scrum FAQ appeared first on ScrumHalf Blog - Agile and Scrum Software - Brazil.

According to the Scrum Guide, the purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to:

Reflect on how the last Sprint went in terms of the people working on it,  relationships formed, processes and tools used;

At this time, the team should reflect on the sprint. Is the whole staff committed? Did someone not get as involved as they should have? Like the Product Owner? Or the ScrumMaster? Were the tools appropriate? Were the meetings appropriate? Is the Scrum process going well? These are all examples of questions that the team has to keep in mind at the time of the meeting. By doing this, the team can talk about the good things and the bad things that happened during the Sprint, and make sure they keep doing the good, and fix the bad for the net Sprint.

Identify and rank the positive and negative aspects of the Sprint;

After the previous inspection is done, the team should express their views about the Sprint and discuss them with other team members. It is important to note that one must identify both the positive and negative points. One way to accomplish this part of the meeting is using colored post-its, and let each member write his observations on them, using one color for positive and negative for another.

Create a plan to implement improvements in the way that the Scrum Team does its job;

The important thing in this meeting is not only to clarify the positive and negative aspects of the sprints. This is a way to make sure mistakes are not repeated, but also a way to make sure the good things that are happening keep happening. So, don’t just tell the team that something is not good, discuss how the team can make it better, and also compliment them on the good things they are doing. Adaptation is essential for Scrum, so we need to change how the team interacts, in order to improve efficiency.

In practice, we observe that it is difficult to get developers to really talk about everything that isn’t working out, especially to the Product Owner and ScrumMaster. In this case, it is important that the ScrumMaster creates a relaxed and comfortable environment, giving space for the team to give constructive criticism on all points you deem relevant, after all, everyone on the team is committed to making the process work.

To learn more about the retrospective meeting, I recommend watching the Sprint Retrospective video on our YouTube channel Scrum University.

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A Sprint is a period of 2 to 4 weeks that is where specific parts of a project are developed. A Sprint begins shortly after the conclusion of the previous, and the two Sprint Planning Meetings should happen in the beginning of the Sprint.

The decision of what will be done in the next Sprint is an agreement made between the team and Product Owner during planning meeting, and what is agreed must be submitted at the end of the Sprint, in the Review meeting.

The first planning meeting, or Planning Meeting 1, what will be delivered in the Sprint is defined. In the second meeting, or  Planning Meeting 2, the team will define what they have to do to accomplish the Sprint’s goal.

At a Planning Meeting, the Product Owner has already prepared the Product Backlog and explains what should be done in each Backlog item. After this explanation, the team estimates the effort required to complete each of these items. Knowing what is a priority for the Product Owner, and knowing how much effort is needed to complete each of the backlog items, the team and product owner must reach an agreement on what will be done in the Sprint. Besides defining the items to be finalized, a goal should also be set for this Sprint. This goal represents what should be finished at the end of Sprint in terms of value and it helps the team stay focused on what is most important for this Sprint.

In the Planning Meeting 2, the team should decide how it will finish each item by the end of the Sprint. There is no rule about how this should be done, however it is important that the team can divide the tasks by what can be done in a day or less. If necessary, the Product Owner can attend the meeting to answer any questions about what was selected for the Sprint. The PO is also allowed to invite people who can answer questions about the business or technical questions.

Planning well is extremely important for the success of the team during the Sprint. The more knowledge the team has about what should be done, the easier it is for the team to complete their tasks.

It is possible that a Sprint’s planning is done wrong, or that unexpected things happen during the Sprint. If this happens, you need to review what was agreed on or even cancel the Sprint.

If you have further questions about the planning of a Sprint, we have a great video on the subject on the YouTube channel “Scrum University”!

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What is it?

In the Scrum framework, the team’s progress should be inspected daily by the rest of the Development Team, through the meeting called the Daily Scrum. This meeting aims to make the team more self-sufficient.

In the daily meeting, all team members must talk about what they have done since the last meeting, and what they are committing to have done at the next meeting. At this time, problems faced by the team as well as impediments that each member may have faced are visible to other members of the team. Technical problems should not be discussed, however, they may be addressed to allow the scheduling of a technical meeting in order to solve them. This meeting should focus on transparency of the work.

This is one of the main components of Scrum. It is where the team demonstrates daily their commitment to the progress of the Sprint. They should also maintain transparency within the team and focus on deliverable items, one of the main concepts of Scrum.

When and how?

The daily meeting, as indicated by its name, should happen daily, preferably at the end or in the beginning of the day. It should be short, about 15 minutes, and should be done with all members of the team standing before the task board. All members of the team should attend the meeting, and the Scrum Master may or may not attend.

During the meeting, each team member should answer three questions:

1. What have I accomplished since the last Daily Meeting?
2. What I will accomplish from now until the next Daily Meeting?
3. Did I have any impediments?

Enjoy and stop by at Scrum University YouTube channel and watch the video about Sprints! Until next time!

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