How to run a sprint review / demo?

Sprint review is performed at the end of the sprint to decide and act on the product (or its increment) developed by the Product team. Sprint reviews are performed in accordance with SPACE protocol.

Purpose of the review: to evaluate and decide whether a right product is being delivered. This evaluation comes from assessing product’s value and usefulness:

• the product addresses needs / backlog items that were included with the sprint
• the product performs its functions as expected / in the right manner
• the product is convenient and nice to use

Expected results of the review:

• launch initiated
• decision to launch is made — users and the product team confirm shipment of the product in its entirety or partially
• product (increment) is accepted by the user — user acceptance tests have been performed and they confirm value and performance of the product in its entirety or partially
• potential additions to the product backlog are identified and collected — feedback items are grouped, structured, and analyzed as future backlog items, however they are not added as such unless they pass through the requirement capture phase
• user feedback is collected — opinions of the users on the product demonstrated and / or the process of demo are gathered
• full product (increment) demo is performed — demo assumes presenting all developed during the sprint and expected to launch items, no exclusions or omissions are made

What needs to be done:

• demo planning — prepare the example, make the script, distribute demo roles, dry run the demo, understand users’ availability, book the place, resolve technical issues, prepare FAQs not covered in the scenario / script, decide on the way to address question during the demo, identify areas and questions for users’ feedback
• demo running — performing demo
• collecting feedback — gather users’ feedback on the matters both relevant to the users and identified by the product team
• identifying potential additions to product backlog — transform feedback to potentially actionable items of the backlog
• documenting decisions — capture what needs to be done: decisions regarding scope and results of user acceptance and launch of the product
• launching the product — go live!

Tools to be used:

• review memo