If you are in the field of Agile framework, you would require to make the difference between Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective, even though both sound a bit similar. There are even a few experienced Scrum Teams who are not able to make the difference between these two meetings. Both meetings have their importance in different ways. In Agile methodology, the difference between both the meetings is nothing but the Sprint Retrospective meeting is held to discuss the team, and the Sprint Review is to discuss the product. If we talk about both meetings right from scratch, Sprint Retrospectives help the Scrum Teams to become smarter and faster, whereas the Sprint Review allows you to fulfill the expectations of the customers regularly. If you want to know about Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective in detail, you can read on further.

What Do You Mean by Sprint Review?

By the end of the Sprint, a Sprint Review meeting is held where the Scrum Team and all the stakeholders gather to discuss the accomplishment at the time of Sprint and also to know if the Sprint Goal has been achieved or not. It is the job of the Scrum Team to make a potential increment in the product in every Sprint. The Sprint Review meeting should involve the Scrum Master, Product Owner, Agile team, Project Manager, and more to carry out the process of product creation successfully. However, the meeting would be quite informal, where there would be a presentation of the Product Increment by the Scrum Team, and the other stakeholders would give feedback on it. Also, it should be ensured by the Scrum Master that each Sprint Review meeting should not long last more than four hours per month.

What Refers to Sprint Retrospective?

Sprint Retrospective refers to the meeting that is conducted right after the Sprint Review meeting to discuss the product that is developing or building by the team. Compared to the Sprint Review meeting, the Sprint Retrospective meeting is held for a shorter time that is not more than three hours. There should be participation of the Product Owner and the entire Scrum team to make the meeting effective and successful. At the time of the Sprint Retrospective meeting, the Scrum team focuses on the improvement of the development process. The Sprint Retrospective meeting is all about discussing the things done on the previous Sprint, the things that would need to be improved, what is productive, and what needs to do more to make it more productive. In this meeting, every team member gets an equal opportunity to present their ideas and opinion in front of the Scrum team.

What Are the Steps to Run Effective Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective Meeting?

The Sprint Review meeting usually lasts four hours for a month and is carried out by the Product Owner, whereas the Sprint Retrospective goes from one to three hours as per the phase of a product and the duration of the Sprint. Both Sprint Review, as well as Sprint Retrospective meeting, can be carried out effectively by following certain steps given below:

Steps to Run Effective Sprint Review Meeting

• Create agenda for the Sprint Review
• Participation of stakeholders
• Demonstrate Product Increment
• Discuss Sprint forecast and goal with the team
• Present Product Backlog
• Collect feedback

Steps to Run Effective Sprint Retrospective Meeting

• Share every data with the team members
• Create goals and allow the Scrum Team members to participate in the meeting
• Look for the wrong patterns of studying, check them properly and discover the reason behind them.
• Find the solution for the things that went wrong with a perfect action of the plan
• At last, praise everyone for undertaking the whole Sprint in a successful way
• Wind up the meeting with a proper follow-up

Pros and Cons of Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective

Check out the strengths and weaknesses of conducting Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective meeting, which are as follows:

Advantages and Disadvantages of Sprint Reviews

Advantages:

• Sprint Reviews allow you to gather together and get straightforward feedback from stakeholders
• This meeting lets you achieve insights to make the Sprints successful
• Team members get the knowledge on how to gain success on their own
• During the Sprint Review meeting, you can get a clear picture of excellent and completed work

Disadvantages:

• If the Sprint Goal is not presented properly, the stakeholders will fail to understand the goal and thereby might give wrong feedback.
• If a proper structure is not formed for this meeting, it can result in confused discussions

Advantages and Disadvantages of Sprint Retrospectives

Advantages:

• In the case of Sprint Retrospectives, all team members engage with each other by sharing their insights and experiences
• Sprint Retrospectives allow you to make a clear plan for the upcoming Sprint
• This meeting would help the team to recognize the problems and make solutions for the issues
• Sprint Retrospective meeting develops trust and confidence among the Scrum team members
• Above all, it helps the team to identify risks for the next Sprint and take the necessary steps

Disadvantages:

• If anything went wrong, the team members would be responsible for everything
• If the issues are underestimated, it might result in bigger problems
• If new changes are adopted in the project development, it can distract the routines of the team.

How does Sprint Review Differ from Sprint Retrospective?

It should be noted that the Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective are different from each other. Let us check out how both the meetings are different in purposes right below:

Participants:

The participants of Sprint Review meetings are various stakeholders and the entire Scrum Team that includes the Product Owner and the Scrum Master. When it comes to Sprint Retrospective meetings, it only involves the Scrum Master and Product Owner but not any business stakeholders.

Objectives:

The objective of the Sprint Review meeting is to bring the whole Scrum Team and stakeholders together to work on product development and offer them effective ways for success. On the other hand, the objective of the Sprint Retrospective meeting is to focus on the improvement of the performance of the Scrum team from Sprint to Sprint.

Results:

On conducting the Sprint Review meeting, the final results to achieve are the User Stories with top priority along with the updated Product Backlog so that the Scrum team can work on both tasks. Besides, the output from the Sprint Retrospective meeting is the list of steps to take to enhance the operations of the team for the upcoming Sprint.

How to Carry Out Both the Meetings?

Both the Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective meetings are undertaken in distinct ways. However, there should be involvement of the Product Owner, Project Manager, Scrum Master, Developers, and Stakeholders. In the case of Sprint Retrospective meetings, the participants are fewer, including the Scrum team. Sometimes, Sprint Review meetings accept customer feedback for product improvement. If we talk about the agenda of Sprint Review meetings, includes making introductions, sharing the new agenda with others by the Product Owner, acceptance of feedback from business stakeholders, and so on.

The Product Owner should confirm that every task is completed properly, and those that are not completed should be presented by the end of the Sprint. If there are any problems, they would be discussed and resolved on time. On the other hand, the agenda of the Sprint Retrospective meeting starts with a discussion among the team regarding the things that went well throughout the Sprint and the things that can be done even better in the next Sprint. This meeting allows every individual to present their ideas in front of the Scrum Master. The Scrum Team chooses the important ideas with votes and then goes with the ideas to tackle the problems. Even though the improvements are adopted at the time of Sprint, the improvements should be officially discussed at the time of the retrospective meeting.

Bottom Lines:

As you have seen above, both Scrum Events are different from each other with a clear agenda and purpose. However, you can make the most out of both meetings as they make sure that the Scrum Team is involved in working to their fullest. The Scrum Team has its unique way to operate during the development process to produce the best outcomes from it. Besides, the entire Scrum Team concentrates on the working process as well as the output to be generated, which makes them engaged and productive all the time. This article is just presented to make you know the actual difference between the Sprint Review and the Sprint Retrospective meetings and how both work in different ways and produce results from Sprint to Sprint. All the necessary points for both meetings are given above to make you know the important sections of both Scrum Events. Above all, you can take the help of this article whenever you would need to conduct any of the meetings effectively.