Show and Tell - the sprint review

In the project world, verbal updates are useful but they don't compare to a visual demonstration - seeing is believing! what better way to gain the trust of your stakeholders.

When I am asked 'what is Agile?' I tend to end up giving an analogy of decorating a room. Think about the process you go through decorating the room. You decide upon whether you will have wallpaper or not, if so what paper would it be, will it be allover or just a feature wall? Will you be painting the walls, if so what colour, matt or silk, you want gloss included if so what colour? Are your walls smooth enough or do you need them skimming? or alternatively you ok with thick lining paper. So many things to decide upon. Now imagine you made all these decisions before the decorator arrived. You compiled a document with all your requirements and and handed it to the decorator. Job will take a week which nicely coincides with your week away. You hand over the house keys and a week later you're back to inspect the finished job.

On entering the room.... shock, horror! The paint tone is not what you thought it would be. The wallpaper doesn't match the paint and the decorator has missed painting the ceiling! The paint and the wallpaper is exactly what you said you wanted the ceiling paper is just a misunderstanding in the decorator's world.

So why this analogy? Think of the process followed very much like waterfall. You pull the requirements together following your lengthly engagement with the business stakeholders ( in this case could have been your spouse/family etc) and compile the document which you pass over to the development team (decorator). Weeks later the product is ready but the business requirements have changed.

So why is Agile different? With Agile you would never lock yourself away and come out when job is complete. Instead you would work closely with the decorator. Before you even buy a tin of paint you may try a few samples on the wall. Once you've chosen your sample the decorator would call you in after he has painted a small area. If you are still ok you could check again when a couple of walls have been painted and then when all the walls are done, you would attach your sample paper on the feature wall and see if it looks the way you want it. All this before you take the shrink wrapper of the wallpaper rolls. Can you see the job has been split into increments with you given many opportunities to inspect the work. When the work is completed what is the chances of the product not being what you want!

In the IT project world the customer is part of your team in the form of the Product Owner (PO), who represents the business. The PO goes on the journey with you. However, even the POs know that the business requirements can change sprint to sprint. This is why the ceremony of 'Sprint Review', known as 'Show and Tell' in some organisations, is ever so important.

Basically the Sprint Review/Show and Tell is the opportunity for the Scrum team to demonstrate the product increment to any key stakeholders. It is usually a LIVE product increment demonstration, opportunity for the Scrum team to answer questions stakeholders may have. Also, from the review the PO can decide which Product Backlog Items (PBI) go back into the Product Backlog for the next sprint. Such demonstrations promote transparency and foster collaboration between Scum Team and the stakeholders. #sprintreview #showandtell