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Review Ceremony to exclude Stakeholders

Last post 06:07 pm January 14, 2020 by Ian Mitchell
3 replies
06:39 am January 14, 2020

Should the Development Team conduct regular demos to the Product Owner during the Sprint and not conduct a Demo to the Product Owner and Stakeholders during the prescribed Review at the end of the Sprint? I got a comment yesterday from the Lead Scrum Master stating that stakeholders don’t need to be at the Demo because the Product Owner has a proxy to receive the Demo on behalf of Stakeholders. I find that comment disturbing.


03:28 pm January 14, 2020

um.... seems like your Scrum Master needs to read the Scrum Guide.

First, there is no Demo in Scrum; you have a Sprint Review. The Sprint Review will often include the team demonstrating the increment. That said, the entire purpose for the Sprint Review is to provide transparency and a formal session for getting feedback from stakeholders. Without stakeholders involved, the event provides literally no value at all.


03:43 pm January 14, 2020

I second Curtis. If the sprint review is not based around demonstrating the value created through the increment during the sprint and generating feedback, what is the point having Sprint review at all? I suppose the SM needs to read the Scrum Guide and, that too thoroughly.  

On the other hand, do you think your PO is selective in communicating the progress (I am quite hesitant to use this) to stakeholders and hence you are mandated to receive the feedback only through PO or SM and do not have a direct line of communication with stakeholders? That would be more worrisome. 


06:07 pm January 14, 2020

I got a comment yesterday from the Lead Scrum Master stating that stakeholdersdon’t need to be at the Demo because the Product Owner has a proxy to receive the Demo on behalf of Stakeholders.

Are you sure that’s what was said? Or was the (so-called) “lead” Scrum Master trying to say that the PO is a kind of proxy, and that stakeholders do not therefore need to be in attendance at a Sprint Review?


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