what is sprint review

What Is a Sprint Review?

Collaborators: Bernie Maloney , Madhur Kathuria , Ram Srinivasan

The sprint review is one of the five events of the scrum framework. This event allows the scrum team and stakeholders to inspect progress toward the product goal and determine future adaptations. Like all scrum events, the sprint review occurs during the sprint itself. It doesn’t occur outside of the sprint cadence.

It’s a collaborative meeting held every sprint. Having said that, you don’t need to think of it as a “meeting” in the traditional sense. This meeting is actually called an “event” in scrum. There are five events: 

• The sprint 
• Sprint planning
• Daily scrum
• Sprint review
• Sprint retrospective 

All of these events are opportunities to inspect and adapt .

Sprint reviews don’t have to be the same-old meeting format. You could hold an open space, a Sprint Bazaar, use interactive online tools, or utilize other collaborative techniques that bring people together to inspect and adapt.

You should hold a sprint review before the sprint retrospective . That way, the team can discuss any feedback they received about their processes in the psychologically safe environment of a retrospective.

Reviews have a four-hour timebox for a one-month sprint. Shorter sprints have shorter review timeboxes (two hours for a two-week sprint, for example). A timebox is a maximum, and scrum teams don’t fill the entire time if they have achieved their objective before the end of the timebox.

This event should be more than a presentation. This is the scrum team’s opportunity to have a discussion with stakeholders and get valuable feedback. 

The event includes but is not limited to:

• Inspection of the sprint outcomes and questions about the outcomes
• Inspection of how the outcomes contribute to the product goal
• Inspection of external conditions, such as market conditions
• Inspection of internal constraints, such as milestones, budgets, and timelines
• Adaptations as needed

At the sprint review, the scrum team shares the outcomes of their current sprint to stakeholders and other attendees they’ve invited. The team presents product backlog items that have met their definition of done and discuss any challenges they encountered. The event is a comprehensive look at the progress toward the product goal, the challenges, and what to do next.

Goals of a Sprint Review

Typical goals of a sprint review include:

• Share the increments and the work: The scrum team may demonstrate the working increments they have completed during the sprint, allowing stakeholders to see the progress made. The team may also cover what has changed in their environment and what may have constrained their ability in areas where they made only partial progress. 
• Ask for stakeholder feedback: The event shouldn’t be limited to a demo of the increment. This event allows stakeholders to give feedback on the work and engage in discussion with the scrum team. It helps the team understand if they are moving in the right direction and if they need to make adjustments.
• Update the product backlog: Based on the feedback received, the product owner may update the product backlog to reflect any new insights or changes required. In extreme cases, the entire product backlog may be deleted if the direction of the product development requires such a pivot.
• Identify next steps: Collaboratively, the scrum team and stakeholders may discuss and identify priorities, needs, and changes. This information helps the scrum team in their next sprint planning event , in which they create a sprint goal and a plan for achieving it.
• Facilitate collaboration: The sprint review fosters collaboration between the scrum team and stakeholders. It encourages open communication, enabling the team to understand stakeholder expectations and determine the next steps. Like all scrum events, the sprint review is an opportunity for transparency, inspection, and adaptation — the three pillars of the empirical process in scrum.

Who Should Attend the Sprint Review?

The scrum team attends: developers , scrum master , and product owner . The sprint review is open to all stakeholders. Often, scrum teams invite individuals who have a stake in the most recent work they’ve completed. The team may invite customers or users. 

As the creators of the increment, the developers play an essential role in sharing their work and answering questions. 

The product owner attends to provide guidance on product-related decisions and to incorporate stakeholder feedback into the product backlog. The product owner’s decisions are visible in the contents and ordering of the product backlog and in the inspectable increment. The product owner can support the developers as they share the outcomes.

The scrum master's role in this event may vary with each meeting. They are there to support and guide the scrum team as the team learns how to facilitate this event and use it as an opportunity to uphold transparency, inspection, and adaptation. The scrum master may, at times, facilitate the sprint review themselves although not a requirement of the accountability.

Tips for Holding a Scrum Sprint Review

How long should it take.

The Scrum Guide describes a four-hour timebox for the review if your sprint is one-month long. Shorter sprints will typically have a shorter timebox. Your scrum team may need to inspect how well the timebox works for your sprint review and modify it for future reviews if needed.

What should my agenda look like?

Please see a sample sprint review agenda . Your discussions during this event may include:

• Reminding everyone of the product goal and the sprint goal
• Showing the completed work or the increment of the current sprint
• Discussing the release of the increment in relation to budget, timelines, marketplace, and other relevant factors
• Discuss what work is the most valuable for the upcoming sprints

Who should run a sprint review?

The scrum team facilitates this event and invites stakeholders and other attendees as needed. Because the product owner is responsible for maximizing the product's value resulting from the developers' work, they will often take the lead or kick off the conversation in the sprint review.

Your scrum team and context will be unique, and as part of a retrospective, you should discuss the best ways for your team to run the meeting, whether that involves the product owner guiding the review or a different format.

What is the difference between a sprint review and a sprint retrospective?

The best way to understand the difference between these two events is to recognize the difference in purpose and attendance between the events. 

The review is about the product. The retrospective is about the team’s collaboration and interaction. 

The sprint review happens first so the team can factor in stakeholder feedback when making decisions about action items during the sprint retrospective. Stakeholders attend the sprint review, but the retrospective is a scrum team-only event. 

An Opportunity to Inspect and Adapt

The scrum team can share their outcomes and receive valuable stakeholder feedback in the sprint review. The scrum framework promotes transparency, collaboration, and continuous improvement within the team. By leveraging the sprint review effectively, scrum teams can ensure they deliver value to their customers and meet stakeholder expectations.

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What is a sprint review? Meeting agenda example and overview

The sprint review is part of the scrum framework for product development and management.

Knowing how to run a sprint review is a prerequisite for any product management or ownership role, but it’s important to make the ceremony more than just a demo of work completed during a sprint.

The sprint review should foster team collaboration and evaluate whether progress is being made toward realizing the product vision . Otherwise, the meeting can devolve into rote presentations and your team will miss out on important opportunities to gather feedback.

What is a sprint review?

The sprint review is a scrum ceremony in which the development team highlights the work it has done during the sprint, demos it for stakeholders, and addresses any questions they may have while inspecting the development.

The Scrum Guide defines a sprint review as an event to “inspect the outcome of the sprint and determine future adaptations.”

The desired outcome of a sprint review is a revised product backlog that defines the probable items for the next sprint. The product owner may also adjust the overall backlog to meet new opportunities

What is the purpose of a sprint review?

A sprint review occurs toward the end of the sprint. It’s an informal meeting between the scrum team and key stakeholders.

In a nutshell, here’s what happens during a sprint review session: The scrum team presents the results of the sprint and all parties collaborate on what should happen next. Next steps may include refining the product backlog to match priorities and conducting a sprint retrospective.

A sprint review is crucial to the overall product development process. Without it, scrum teams may lose out on the chance to assess the product and adapt accordingly. Feedback from key stakeholders is crucial to achieving the goals laid out in the product vision statement .

Who participates in a sprint review meeting?

The sprint review is attended by the scrum team and key stakeholders. All attendees have an active role in running the meeting. For example, the scrum team is responsible for presenting its work and gathering feedback.

Usually, various team members will take charge of certain aspects of the sprint review. Generally, the product owner runs the sprint review meeting and presents what happened during the sprint. Meanwhile, a scrum master facilitates the event.

Stakeholders can include people like end-users, investors, or other teams. The stakeholders will have a chance to interact with the product while also providing feedback. It’s crucial to include stakeholders as part of the sprint process. This makes stakeholders feel involved and more likely to understand the path the product is taking during development.

What happens in a sprint review meeting?

The sprint review is a working session, which means the scrum team should avoid making it a presentation-only meeting. That said, the main purpose of the meeting is to present the results of the sprint and gather feedback from all stakeholders.

Some product owners like to use the sprint review meeting as a way to improve team morale. A review of the work completed is an opportunity to celebrate the team and what it has accomplished. However, the product owner should avoid turning the sprint review into a team-building event.

Generally, a sprint review meeting covers the following activities.

Review goals

The product owner begins the meeting by sharing the product goal and explaining what the scrum team aimed to accomplish during the sprint. This part also covers a review of the original sprint goal and which product backlog items were part of the sprint.

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Review market changes

To prepare for the sprint review, the product owner should conduct research about current market trends. They may want to present this information during the sprint review so stakeholders can make informed decisions about what should happen next with the product.

Present sprint results

During this part of the meeting, the scrum team presents what it has accomplished and learned during the sprint. This also includes addressing any problems the team faced. It’s important to present problems so stakeholders can understand what issues are occurring and for the scrum team to receive possible solutions.

Demo software

Some product managers make the mistake of turning a sprint review into purely a demo of the product. While the demo is an important part of the sprint review, it’s also essential to let the stakeholders interact with the product directly.

The scrum team may want to set up stations to encourage stakeholder interactions — for example, setting up computers so stakeholders can use new software features. This helps facilitate better feedback on the product.

Collect feedback

Collecting feedback is one of the most valuable aspects of a sprint review. Sometimes, stakeholders don’t provide feedback, but it’s important to create an environment where they can share their thoughts. You’ll want to ask for their feedback throughout the sprint review and make sure participants know their thoughts are welcome.

After demonstrating the product, attendees collaborate on the product backlog and determine what should be prioritized. This discussion informs sprint planning .

Adjust product roadmap

Based on the feedback gathered during the previous stage, the product owner adjusts the product backlog items for the next sprint. This could involve changing the order of items to prioritize others.

The product owner may also discuss the budget, timelines, and capabilities with stakeholders. All of these discussions inform changes that may need to be made to the product roadmap.

How often are sprint reviews held?

Sprint reviews are held for every sprint. The frequency of sprint reviews depends on how often your team holds sprints.

Usually, sprints can range from one to four weeks. An organization may have sprint reviews every week, every other week, or monthly.

How long should a sprint review take?

The duration of a sprint review depends on the planned duration of the sprint. Product managers should plan one hour of sprint review for every week of a sprint.

For example, a one-month sprint has a time box of four hours for the sprint review. Shorter sprints have shorter sprint reviews.

However, it isn’t always necessary to take the full recommended time if the product team can gather the necessary feedback and have a robust discussion without maximizing the full time box recommendation.

What’s the difference between a sprint review and a sprint retrospective?

A sprint review is an event that occurs right before the sprint retrospective . While both ceremonies involve reviewing some aspects of the sprint, they have different focuses.

A sprint review meeting focuses on examining the actual work (tickets completed, bugs resolved, etc.) that was completed during the sprint with the aim of updating the backlog. A sprint retrospective, meanwhile, is focused on improving the team’s performance and ways of working together.

Below are some key distinctions between the sprint review and sprint retrospective ceremonies.

Best practices for running a successful sprint review

Below are some tips to help you run engaging and impactful sprint review meetings.

• Avoid speaking in jargon . Using simple language ensures all stakeholders understand what happened during the sprint
• Focus on the why . Explain how the items accomplished during the sprint will support customers by removing their pain points and what they will help the customers gain
• Don’t discuss every product backlog item in detail . Not all items are important enough to share, so focus on the highlights
• Gather feedback . Ensure that there is a process to collect feedback from stakeholders. This may include following up with stakeholders after the review to ensure they are satisfied
• Schedule breaks . Sprint review meetings can get lengthy, so it’s important to schedule breaks to let attendees stretch their legs
• Do a rehearsal . Sometimes a rehearsal will reveal flaws in the presentation. This gives you time to fix the issues before the actual sprint review
• Create an agenda . No one likes long meetings. An agenda can help set expectations and keep the sprint review on track

Sprint review meeting agenda (example)

The product owner/product manager should create an agenda before the sprint review. This ensures that all important points are covered and that the review doesn’t go astray.

While every organization will have its own variation, a typical sprint review meeting agenda is broken down into four parts (see an example sprint review meeting agenda below to the right):

• Sprint review — The product owner gives a presentation on the sprint goals and what was and wasn’t accomplished and shares updates about market trends
• Live demo — The development team demonstrates what is new to the product and summarizes successes and challenges it encountered during the sprint. The team may also answer questions from attendees since they are most familiar with the product
• Feedback — Gathering feedback is important during and after the sprint review. This means creating an open and comfortable environment for discussions. The comments should be documented by the product owner for further analysis
• Update backlog — Once the sprint review event is complete, a product owner may make changes to the product backlog or roadmap based on the feedback received

A sprint review is a necessary component of the sprint. If you don’t plan it well, it can turn into a boring event.

When executed thoughtfully, a sprint review can result in valuable feedback from stakeholders, which ultimately leads to a more efficient scrum and products that solve users’ most pressing problems. By celebrating the team’s success, you can boost morale to boot.

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• Sprint reviews

Agile sprint reviews

Three steps for better sprint reviews with your agile team.

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What is a sprint review.

A sprint review meeting is a fundamental ceremony in Agile development,  specifically within the Scrum framework . It marks the end of a sprint—typically a time-boxed period of two to four weeks—during which the development team delivers a potentially shippable increment of product functionality.

In a sprint review, the development team and stakeholders gather to review and demonstrate the work completed during the sprint. This provides an opportunity to showcase the features developed, gather feedback, and ensure alignment with the product vision and requirements.

What is the main purpose of a sprint review?

The main goal of a sprint review is to gather feedback and ensure transparency in the next steps of the development process. It has several key objectives:

Demonstration of completed work : The development team demonstrates the features completed during the sprint to key stakeholders, including the product owner, customers, and other relevant parties.

Feedback collection : Stakeholders provide feedback on the demonstrated features, enabling the team to adjust and prioritize work effectively in subsequent sprints.

Alignment with product vision : The sprint review ensures the work completed aligns with the overall product vision and objectives. It helps validate that the development efforts and sprint goals are moving in the right direction.

Celebration of achievements : It provides an opportunity to celebrate the development team's accomplishments and acknowledge their hard work and dedication.

Identification of improvements : Through discussions and observations during the sprint review, areas for improvement in the development process can be identified and addressed in future iterations.

In short, the sprint review promotes collaboration, transparency, and continuous improvement within the Agile development framework. It fosters a culture of open communication, collaborative working sessions, and shared responsibility for the product's success.

Sprint review vs retrospective

Sprint reviews are not retrospectives, but what is a sprint review? A sprint review demonstrates the hard work of the entire Scrum team: designers, developers, and the product owner. At Atlassian, we like to keep our sprint reviews casual.

Team members gather around a desk for informal demos and describe their work for that iteration. It's a time to ask questions, try new features, and give feedback. Sharing in success is an important part of building an agile team .

Let's discuss why the team's " definition of done " is important to this agile ceremony.

Step 1: Define 'done'

As a regular user of  Jira , user, nothing is more satisfying than moving a task from “code review” to “done.” That transition represents the completed work we set out to accomplish as a team. Done and done!

Crossing the finish line and completing work requires good planning, a clear "definition of done," and focused execution. Most of this happens during  sprint planning , but teams need to do a little more than planned to have a successful sprint review and sprint. They must develop a clear culture of delivering work and what it means to be “done."

A culture of delivery

Effective teams bring clear processes and development culture to each project and every work item. Use these questions to assess your process and make sure it's working optimally:

• Are stories well-defined by the product owner, designer, and engineering team before implementation?

Does everyone understand the team's engineering values and culture?

Are there clear definitions and requirements around  code review , automated testing , and  continuous integration  to encourage sustainable,  agile development ?

After the team completes a story, do any bugs surface? In other words, does ‘done’ really mean ‘done?’

The team's culture around quality and completion should rise above every user story, engineering work item, and bug. This culture is reflective of how the team approaches and delivers software.

Defining ‘done’ on each work item

A clear definition of ‘done’ helps teams focus on the end goal for each work item. When the product owner adds work to the team’s  backlog , defining the acceptance criteria is a key part of his or her process. What does it mean for a user story to be complete?

At Atlassian, the Jira team tracks acceptance criteria and testing notes in line with the rest of the user story inside of Jira. That way, the entire team has a clear view of success on every issue. What are acceptance criteria and testing notes?

• Acceptance criteria : Metrics the product owner uses to confirm the story is implemented to their satisfaction.

Testing notes : Short, focused guidance from the quality assistance team that enables the development engineer to write better feature code and automated tests.

Well-defined issues during implementation allow everyone to be successful. With Jira, it's easy to add fields in line. As an administrator, click the admin button on the issue.

Step 2: Celebrate the team

At Atlassian, one of our core values is to “play, as a team.” Sprint reviews are a great time to celebrate the team and everyone’s accomplishments during an iteration. We typically host them on Friday afternoons, while everyone in the office winds down before the weekend. Sprint reviews are not synonymous with retrospectives, so make sure to host the sprint review after an iteration, but before your retrospective. External participants are always welcome to join, but the meeting usually consists of the product owner, the full development team, and the scrum master . As a best practice, we recommend spending 30 minutes to an hour for each iteration in the meeting.

We love sprint reviews because they protect the health and morale of the team. Sprint reviews are all about team building. The review isn’t adversarial, it’s not an exam—it’s a collaborative event across the team in which people demo their work, field questions, and get feedback.

“Encourage team ownership during the sprint review by having different team members demonstrate the functionality,” suggests Atlassian’s Modern Work Coach Mark Cruth. “If you use Feature Leads, this is a great way for them to demonstrate their hard work leading the effort.” If a sprint review doesn’t become a positive activity across the team, it may be indicative of:

• The team taking on too much work and not completing it during an iteration “Sprint reviews are a great way to encourage teams to break down their work into small, meaningful deliverables,” adds Cruth. “Avoid reviewing unfinished work - as the Agile Manifesto puts it, the goal is working software!”  

The team struggling with existing technical debt

Features not being developed sustainably to ensure new bugs are not introduced into the codebase

The team’s development practices aren’t as tuned as they could be

The product owner is changing priorities within an iteration, and the development team is sidelined by scope creep

Note: Every team has a difficult iteration sometimes. Take the time to understand why an iteration changes in the team's retrospective and create a plan to address future issues.

Step 3: Reach across geographies

Companies with distributed teams have special challenges around scaling agile ceremonies across geographies. Sprint reviews are no exception. The Jira team, for example, has members worldwide, from Sydney to Gdańsk to San Francisco. Even though we're distributed, sprint reviews are an important part of our team culture. Team members create informal videos and share them on a  Confluence  page for the entire team to see.

“Use tools like Loom to record your review and gather feedback from others around the globe,” Cruth explains. “We work in an async world, so approach sprint reviews from the lens of async collaboration.” These informal videos keep everyone up-to-date on the progress of development projects despite time differences. Seeing a feature demo first-hand by the developer strengthens the team in two ways:

Product Understanding : The entire team gets to hear the feature's intention, rationale, and implementation, broadening everyone's understanding of the product.

Team Building : Videos create more personal connections across the team. We get to see who's behind every aspect of a product. The bridges created by this practice make us a tighter, more cohesive group despite geographies.

Benefits of a sprint review

One significant benefit of incorporating sprint reviews into the Agile development process is the enhanced adaptability and flexibility it provides for the product. By regularly reviewing completed work, teams gain valuable insights into stakeholders' evolving needs and preferences.

Iterative feedback loop

Sprint reviews establish an iterative feedback loop between the development team and stakeholders. This iterative nature allows for rapid adjustments and refinements to the product based on real-time feedback, ensuring that it remains aligned with evolving market demands and user requirements.

Early detection of issues

By showcasing work-in-progress during sprint reviews, teams can identify potential issues or misunderstandings early in the development cycle. This early detection enables prompt resolution of issues, preventing them from escalating into larger problems later.

Opportunity for iterative refinement

Sprint reviews provide a platform for iterative product refinement. Gathering stakeholder feedback enables teams to prioritize features, make course corrections, and pivot the product direction if necessary, ensuring its relevance and competitiveness in the market. 

Adaptation to changing priorities

In today's dynamic business environment, priorities and market conditions can change rapidly. Sprint reviews enable teams to adapt to these changes by allowing for the reprioritization of work and adjustment of project goals based on emerging opportunities or challenges.

Empowerment of stakeholders

Sprint reviews empower stakeholders by giving them a voice in the development process. By actively participating in reviews and providing feedback, stakeholders feel a sense of ownership and investment in the product's success, leading to greater engagement and collaboration.

Overall, the enhanced adaptability and flexibility afforded by sprint reviews enable teams to respond quickly to changing market dynamics, customer preferences, and business needs. By embracing this flexibility, businesses can maintain a competitive edge and deliver products that align with stakeholders' changing expectations.

A final word of advice

For teams new to sprint reviews, there's a strong temptation to let them bleed into the retrospective. However, a sprint review is an independent ceremony from a sprint retrospective .  Take the time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Liberally celebrate accomplishments. Effective sprint reviews build up the team's morale and motivation. This idea of celebration is so important to the  Jira  team that we've incorporated “go ahead, celebrate” into our vision statement. Get started for free with Jira's scrum template

Agile has had a huge impact on me both professionally and personally as I've learned the best experiences are agile, both in code and in life. You'll often find me at the intersection of technology, photography, and motorcycling. 

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What is a Sprint Review? Definition, Purpose, and Template

Learn how to properly examine the work accomplished during a sprint.

According to the Scrum product management framework, a sprint consists of four events: sprint planning , daily standup, sprint review, and sprint retrospective . All four are equally important for a successful sprint.

In this article, we will take a closer look at what a sprint review is and how it should be run.

What is a sprint review?

A sprint review is an informal meeting held at the end of a sprint, during which the team shows what was accomplished, while the stakeholders provide feedback. It's a collaborative working session rather than a one-sided presentation.

Here's an example of what a documented sprint review can look like in Nuclino , a unified workspace for all your team's knowledge, docs, and projects.

You can use Nuclino to plan and review your sprints, build your internal knowledge base , onboard new employees , take meeting minutes , communicate asynchronously , and more. It works like a collective brain, allowing you to bring all your team's work together in one place and collaborate without the chaos of files and folders, context switching, or silos.

Visual collaboration is seamlessly built into Nuclino, allowing you to add an infinite collaborative canvas to any design brief. You can use it to create diagrams and flowcharts, brainstorm ideas using sticky notes, and much more.

Sprint review participants

The attendees of a sprint review usually include the product owner and product manager, the Scrum Master, the development team, the management, various business stakeholders, and anyone else involved in the product management process.

Sprint review timebox

Like all meetings, a sprint review needs to be strictly timeboxed. It typically lasts between thirty minutes and three hours, depending on how long your sprints are. For example, if you are using one-week sprints, the meeting should last no longer than one hour.

A sprint review can also be conducted asynchronously , without a fixed timebox. In this case, sprint results can be presented using a video recording tool like Loom , and stakeholders can provide their feedback in writing.

Sprint review purpose

A sprint review is more than just a demo session held to provide a routine status update. The main purpose of a sprint review is to inspect the outcome of the sprint, collect feedback from all the stakeholders, and adapt the backlog going forward.

When done right, a sprint review can help you create transparency, foster collaboration, and generate valuable insights.

Sprint review vs sprint retrospective

The sprint review meeting takes place before the sprint retrospective . These two meetings may sound similar, but they have very different goals.

In a nutshell, the sprint review is a discussion about what the team is building , while the retrospective is focused on how they’re building it . More specifically, there are three main differences between these two meetings:

Participants. Sprint reviews involve a variety of different stakeholders, anyone related to the product. Sprint retrospectives are intended for the Scrum team and no one else.

Deliverables. The main output of a sprint review is an updated product backlog. On the other hand, the core deliverable of a sprint retrospective is a list of action items intended to improve the Scrum team's workflow during the next sprint.

Goals. A sprint review is carried out with the goal of reaching alignment between the scrum team and product stakeholders. The purpose of a sprint retrospective is to continuously improve team performance from sprint to sprint.

In short, while sprint reviews exist to help you consistently meet customer expectations, sprint retrospectives help your Scrum team get things done faster and more efficiently. While some teams prefer to merge sprint reviews and retrospectives into a single hybrid meeting, it's strongly recommended to keep them separate.

Sprint review meeting agenda

Whether you prefer to conduct your sprint reviews in-person or asynchronously, make sure to prepare the meeting agenda in advance and take meeting minutes . Having a written record of your sprint reviews helps you preserve the context of every decision and makes it easier for remote, absent, or newly joined team members to stay in the loop.

There is no strict format for the sprint review meeting, but it usually begins with revisiting the goals of the sprint. The product owner explains the backlog items that have and haven’t been completed during the sprint. After that, the development team demonstrates the work that was done, answers questions, and receives feedback. Finally, the whole group collaborates on the next steps, providing valuable input for the upcoming sprint planning meeting.

The sprint review meeting agenda typically includes the following topics:

Sprint goal review . What did we set out to accomplish? What was accomplished? What is still unfinished?

Demonstration. What was built? How does it work?

Feedback. What feedback or questions does the rest of the team have?

Release plan. What is the current release plan? What are the expected delivery dates?

Discussion. Do we need to make changes to the plan?

Next steps. What tasks should come next?

Sprint review template

A sprint review is a recurring meeting, so having a template can be a great way to ensure consistency and save time. Here's an example of what a sprint review template may look like:

One of the key tenets of effective team communication is to treat meetings as a last resort and make time for deep work. But that doesn't mean that all meetings are a waste of time, and sprint reviews (when done right) can be vitally important to your team's workflow. It's a unique occasion to pause, reflect, and celebrate the team’s accomplishments; gather valuable feedback to inform future sprints; and enable the team to go forward with a shared purpose.

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Collaborate in real time or asynchronously and spend less time in meetings.

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Making the Most of the Sprint Review

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The Sprint Review is one of the most valuable events for the Product Owner, because it is an opportunity for the Scrum Team as well as stakeholders/customers to inspect what was delivered, discuss what progress has been made towards the Product Goal, and adapt accordingly.  The Sprint Review should not be treated as merely a demo (although a demo may be on the agenda).  Instead, this is a key inspect and adapt event where feedback is gathered which the Product Owner may use to update the Product Backlog and Product Forecast.

I am often asked, is there a timebox for the Sprint review?  The answer is YES!  Absolutely!  The timebox for the Sprint Review is four hours (and honestly, I have never been to a Sprint Review that long even for a team using Nexus to scale multiple Scrum Teams.)  This timebox exists to respect the time of attendees and to ensure that the meeting remains productive.  

Preparing for the Sprint Review Event

Key inputs into the Sprint Review event include the Product Goal, the Increment, the Product Backlog, the Forecast (or Roadmap), the Definition of Done, the Sprint and any market changes.

Product Goal  

Without a Product Goal, the Scrum Team is like a ship without a rudder.  The Product Goal is owned by the Product Owner.  There can be only one Product Goal at a time in order to give focus to the team.  

The Increment

According to the Scrum.org glossary , the Increment is the “Scrum Artifact that defines the complete and valuable work produced by the Developers during a Sprint. The sum of all Increments form a product.” The Increment is what is delivered by Developers each Sprint.  The purpose of the Sprint is to create a done, usable increment each Sprint.

Product Backlog

The Product Backlog is owned by the Product Owner and is the single source of requirements for the Scrum Team.  The Product Backlog needs to be transparent and available to all, and should show what the Scrum Team will work on next.

Definition of Done

The Definition of Done describes all of the work that needs to be completed for each Product Backlog Item before it can be considered done.  The Definition of Done guides the Scrum Team when they are determining what work to pull into the Sprint, and it provides context to the Product Owner as well as stakeholders so that they understand what level of work has been put into each Product Backlog Item before it is discussed at the Sprint Review meeting.

The Sprint Goal as well as the Product Backlog Items planned/delivered as part of the Sprint are a key input into the Sprint Review meeting.

The Forecast shows delivery or release dates for the Product.  There are many different ways to share a forecast, including a Roadmap or Monte Carlo diagram.  

Market Changes

Prior to the Sprint review, the Product Owner should gather information on any relevant Market changes which could impact the Product.

What happens at the Sprint Review

During the event, the Scrum Team and stakeholders review what was accomplished in the Sprint and what has changed in their environment or the Marketplace. Based on this information, all attendees at the Sprint Review collaborate on what to do next. The Sprint Review is a working session and the Scrum Team should avoid limiting it to a presentation or team building event.

Product Goal

In order to keep the team heading in the right direction, the Product goal should be reiterated at every opportunity, including the Sprint Review. This is an opportunity to remind both the Scrum Team and the Stakeholders what we are aiming to achieve as a way to focus the conversation on what matters.

Sprint Goal

At the Sprint Planning meeting for each Sprint, the Scrum Team creates a Sprint Goal which describes WHY the Sprint is being delivered.  Ideally, each Sprint should be a step towards the Product Goal and should describe the highest ordered Product Backlog items which were pulled into the Sprint.

Review Market Changes

Any Market changes which may impact the Product should be presented at the Sprint Review meeting.  This information will help the Scrum Team and its stakeholders to better provide feedback and better understand the Product Owner’s reasoning behind the order of Product Backlog Items in the Product Backlog.

Explain what was done and not done

For Transparency, the Scrum Team may choose to describe which Product Backlog items were originally planned for the Sprint, and which of those Product Backlog items were done - or not - by the end of the Sprint.  This level of Transparency can be uncomfortable for teams, but it provides stakeholders with key insights into the issues which the team is facing and may be an opportunity for the Scrum Team to request assistance with removing impediments.

Demonstrate working software (or the Increment)

For software development Products, the team may choose to provide a live demonstration or a presentation of the done increment in order to give stakeholders and opportunity to react to what was done and to provide feedback.  You do not need to demonstrate every single Product Backlog Item which was delivered as part of the Sprint , but be sure and cover the most valuable Product Backlog Items which were delivered.  Frequently, the Developers facilitate this part of the Sprint Review meeting because they are closest to the work and best able to answer any questions that may arise.

Collect Feedback

This is the part of the Sprint Review that is most frequently skipped for newer teams.  Many teams do not do enough to encourage sprint review attendees to provide feedback.

Review Forecast

The Sprint review might conclude with a discussion of the Product Forecast.  The Forecast is a prediction of what features or functionality might be delivered next, and when.

Outputs from the Sprint Review

Coming out of the Sprint Review, the Product Owner should be able to update the Product Backlog (including detail and ordering) and the Forecast based on feedback received.

The Sprint Review is an important inspect and adapt opportunity.  In order to get the most from this meeting, attendees should be limited to the Scrum Team and important stakeholders who are invited to provide direct feedback.  If the meeting is too large, individuals may hesitate to provide honest feedback.  If the meeting is too small, then it’s a missed opportunity to gather feedback from stakeholders which could be used to maximize the value of the product resulting from the work of the Scrum Team. 

About  Mary Iqbal   

Mary has trained more than 1,000 people in Agile, Scrum and Kanban.  She has guided the Agile transformation for organizations with more than 60 teams and has led the creation of new products from product definition through self-organization and launch.  Mary is the founder of Rebel Scrum , a consulting company that helps teams transform to Agile and provides training and coaching services founded upon practical experience.  Rebel Scrum has experience in large-scale agile transformations in a variety of environments including technology and business transformations.  Signup for one of Rebel Scrum's upcoming public scrum training classes or contact us to discuss private Scrum training and consulting options for your organization.

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• Product management
• Development
• What is a sprint review?

A sprint review is a meeting that scrum teams hold at the end of each sprint. Think of it as an informal session for sharing work completed during the sprint, answering questions from the product owner and other stakeholders, and receiving feedback on new functionality. For context, a sprint review is the third of the four scrum ceremonies :

Sprint planning : a working session to agree on what the team will accomplish during the next sprint

Daily standup : a quick meeting to align on completed and upcoming work

Sprint review: an opportunity to demo work and hear feedback from teammates

Sprint retrospective : a chance to reflect on how the sprint went in order to improve future sprints

By the end of each sprint, you aim to produce a coded, tested, and usable piece of software — a potentially shippable product increment. In a sprint review meeting, you and your developer teammates demo what you accomplished during the sprint and discuss what (if anything) you were not able to achieve. The demo is an opportunity to show that your functionality is working, even if it is not completely ready to ship.

Track sprint progress in Aha! Develop. Start a free trial .

During a sprint review meeting, the product owner also decides whether you have met the objective of the sprint. If changes must be made to achieve the sprint goals, the team then collectively agrees on what development work you will do to improve functionality.

Making sprint reviews more valuable

The main purpose of a sprint review is for the scrum team and other cross-functional teammates to come together to review the work that was planned versus the work that was actually achieved. During the sprint itself, you are heads down — focused on coding and implementing changes within a given time frame. This is why it is so valuable to pause, regroup, and confirm that the development work is progressing the way everyone is expecting.

While demos are a significant component of sprint reviews, these meetings are not merely presentations. Productive sprint reviews also keep the team aligned on how the development work is progressing against the product roadmap . When developers and stakeholders alike understand (and agree on) the reasoning behind each feature or update, it is easier to align on how your work will positively impact users. This ensures that you are implementing functionality in a way that meets business needs and exceeds customer expectations.

Beyond this, the best sprint review meetings are fun. Seeing what everyone has worked on helps you feel closer to the other developers on your team. You can appreciate each person's contributions and celebrate the great work you and your colleagues have accomplished.

How to implement scrum?

Themes, epics, stories, and tasks in scrum

Who should attend a sprint review?

The three roles on a scrum team — product owner, scrum master, and development team — are the primary attendees at a sprint review. Collectively the group discusses which items in the product backlog are completed, which are not, and any adjustments you must make to deliver on time.

Here is a brief summary of what each member of the scrum team is responsible for during a sprint review:

Product owner: Accepts completed user stories , shares feedback on new functionality, and adjusts the product backlog if necessary

Scrum master: Oversees the logistics of the meeting — coordinates who will be speaking and plans the meeting time and location so that all attendees can be present and punctual

Development team: Demonstrates the new functionality you have built and answers questions about your work (usually the developer who built a given feature will be the person who shares it during the sprint review)

The product owner will typically invite other people as well, depending on which groups in the organization are impacted by development work completed during the sprint. Expect to see UX designers , representatives from the cross-functional product team , or other interested parties join the meeting to offer their insight. For example, the product owner might invite an account manager for a large customer that will be impacted by new functionality, or a member of the finance team if the feature is an update to an internal billing application.

If you are new to sprint reviews, it can feel intimidating to have so many different folks from across the organization attend. But these stakeholders are often able to give valuable information and feedback that can inform your development work and even spark ideas for how to build a more compelling solution. Listening deeply to everyone's feedback ensures that you are well-positioned to reach business goals and create a better product.

What is the difference between a sprint review and a sprint retrospective?

Let's take a moment to explain the differences between two related scrum ceremonies — the sprint review and sprint retrospective. If you are new to scrum, it is easy to confuse these events because both occur after the sprint is complete. But the objectives and key agenda items differ between these two meetings. Let's take a closer look:

How to run a sprint review

Scrum prescribes rules for its four ceremonies. While these are useful guidelines, remember that there is no "wrong" way to approach a sprint review — so long as the meeting helps you reach your objectives. Choose the format, timing, agenda, and level of formality that works best for your agile team and helps you achieve your product and sprint goals.

That said, it is useful to understand some best practices for running a sprint review:

Goal first: Clarify during sprint planning what your objectives are and why they matter to customers and the business. Then during the sprint review, you have clear goalposts to measure your progress against.

Align: Everyone should understand when a user story or work item is complete. The product owner defines acceptance criteria — metrics to determine when a user story is done — during sprint planning . The sprint review, then, is a chance for the group to confirm that the acceptance criteria have indeed been met for each item of work.

Collaborate: Along with your developer teammates and other stakeholders, you should ask questions, raise concerns, and give feedback. This helps you improve the product and deepens everyone's empathy for customers and their use cases.

Celebrate: You worked hard and now it is time to enjoy the team's accomplishments. Sprint reviews build camaraderie, increase morale, and boost motivation for the next iteration.

If you are new to scrum or simply want to learn more about what the different scrum ceremonies look like in practice, you can download this free sprint review template. Follow the suggested agenda items or customize it according to the needs of your team — so you can have more focused and productive sprint reviews.

This is an example of a sprint review meeting note template created using Aha! Develop.

Productive and happy development teams use Aha! Develop to customize the way they work. Sign up for a free 30-day trial to discover all you can do with this fully extendable agile development tool.

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