The Review and Retrospective for Beginners

What is the Sprint Review Meeting?

The Sprint Review, as the name implies, reviews the progress made at the end of the current sprint. This typically comprises the Development Team demonstrating new features to the product owner and other stakeholders. These meetings are typically less formal than traditional product demos in software development. Instead of showcasing the entire product, a Sprint Review shows off the new features and nothing else. If improvements are made to a previously existing feature, the presenters assume the audience will already understand the previous behaviour. All in all, the development team will spend maybe half an hour, showing off new features and answering questions that the stakeholders may have.

What is the Sprint Retrospective Meeting?

Typically held with an audience of just the Scrum Team, the Retrospective is a chance to examine the good, the bad, and the ugly of a Sprint. This is key to the adaptable nature of Agile software development. If a Sprint builds up a large amount of technical debt, the Scrum Team must be honest between members and examine what can be done to prevent and address technical debt moving forward. Not all Sprint Retrospective feedback is negative, however. If the Scrum Team changes a behavior that improves productivity, making note of this allows them to continue in the right direction. The key is to motivate and equip the Scrum Team to be as effective as possible.

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