There’s a reason we often say, “Trust but verify.” It's because trust is important — but to build and maintain trust we need transparency. In Scrum, the Sprint Review gives us a way to practice that idea consistently.
I recently heard about a company that spent more than six months “gathering requirements” for a project. After all that time, they had no working product and no documented requirements — just a vague claim that the vendor was X% done with Requirements gathering.
It's a sad story - but really not all that uncommon for Waterfall teams. It is all too easy for time to slip by for a team using the Waterfall approach, because they don't have the rigor that Scrum brings to the equation. If that company had used Scrum, they wouldn’t have waited half a year to find out that the vendor wasn't really delivering anything. And it's not (all) the vendor's fault. The Waterfall process itself makes this kind of problem all too common.
On the other hand, Scrum has a built-in feedback loop that provides Transparency and promotes accountability. At least once per month (or shorter depending on the length of the Sprint that the Scrum Team is using), Scrum Teams deliver something usable. Not requirements - but working product.
At the Sprint Review, which takes place once per Sprint, the Scrum Team comes together with Stakeholders to inspect what was delivered during the previous Sprint. The Stakeholders can give feedback on whether what was delivered was really valuable - or not. And that is huge. It means we find out right away whether the team can actually, well, deliver. It means that - right away - we find out whether there are any hinderances in the Scrum Team's path. We find out - right away - whether there were any misunderstandings around what was needed.
The delivery of usable product is a hallmark of Scrum - and it's called incremental delivery. It's one of the many things that helps Scrum Teams reduce risk and deliver value sooner to the customer. Scrum Teams don't take months to deliver requirements. Instead, they collaborate together, gather requirements and deliver something usable every Sprint.
Because of the Sprint Review, it doesn't take months to discover there's a problem.
Bottom line: Because of the Sprint Review, it doesn’t take months to discover misalignment - or even a lack of progress. Scrum doesn’t ask us to stop trusting people. It gives us a rhythm that builds trust through transparency. That rhythm starts with a Done increment, and it continues with an honest review of what’s been achieved.
Trust is earned. The Sprint Review helps us do that — one increment at a time.
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