The Sprint Review is an invaluable session to demo progress, engage stakeholders, and discuss what to do next. However, in my experience mist teams don’t take full advantage of the session.

The Scrum Guide says

The purpose of the Sprint Review is to inspect the outcome of the Sprint and determine future adaptations. The Scrum Team presents the results of their work to key stakeholders and progress toward the Product Goal is discussed.

The Scrum Guide 2020

In other words the review is a chance to take a step back and look at the increments which have been completed during the sprint, consider the product goal, and decide the next short term objective.

This should be done in full view of stakeholders, the more transparency the better because this is how we avoid waste and poor quality.

Personally I’m always worried when I hear teams ask “Do we have anything to demo?”. This often implies to me that they think of the Sprint Review as a presentation of progress rather than a working and planning session. Furthermore, a scrum team should aim to release at least one increment, no matter how small each and every sprint so keep an eye out for these warning signs.

The Scrum Guide reminds us that:

The Sprint Review should never be considered a gate to releasing value.

The Scrum Guide 2020

It is far better to think of the Sprint Review as an opportunity to recap what has recently been completed (if not deployed) and a chance to engage with stakeholders on what should be done next.