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Scrum: Demos

From a collection of writings I wrote in 2007 when I first explored this methodology.



Yesterday we completed the first iteration and had the scrum review. Given that this was the first iteration, there was sufficient excitement around here about the demos and how we go about it. I am capturing as part of this blog some of my impressions about this ritual of Scrum.

Positives:
  • I personally found that Demos were a real good tool for it gave a perspective of what is coming.
  • Since the audience of the demo included people from other teams, it helped them build a more holistic view of the entire development and helped people to spot dependencies.
  • For many of the young developers, the idea of giving a demo to a large audience was a experience and they were very excited about the same. I personally believe that such excitement is of great importance for the team morale.
  • The demos helped in soliciting quick feedback and make the necessary changes before it is too late.
Negatives:
  • There was no participation from the product management. I think it is imperative that all the stakeholders are involved and give their perspective about the feature.
  • Managing cross timezone issues is an issue.
  • Timeboxing the demo is good. But the problem is if there are many items to demo, people loose interest after a few demo.
  • There is a tendency to make this actually as a "Ritual" while forgetting to understand the underlying philosophy behind it.
On the whole, I believe that the demo helps as a good review mechanism. Need to see how this morphs over the next iteration
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