Mid-Sprint, a piece of work meets the Definition of Done and the Product Owner would like it in customers' hands this afternoon. A Developer objects that nothing may go out before the Sprint Review, where stakeholders see it first. Who is right?
Professional Scrum Master I, objective 1. Understanding and applying the Scrum framework hard
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The options
Correct The Product Owner — an Increment may be delivered to stakeholders before the end of the Sprint, and the Sprint Review is never a gate to releasing value
Correct. Holding finished, valuable work back until a meeting delays value for no empirical benefit, which is precisely why Scrum says the Review must not be treated as a release gate.
Not correct The Developer — the Sprint Review exists so that stakeholders can approve the Increment before it is released
Wrong. The Sprint Review is an inspection and a working session; Scrum contains no approval or sign-off step anywhere, and inventing one puts a committee between finished work and the people who need it.
Not correct The Developer, but only because the Sprint Goal has not been achieved yet
Wrong. Releasing a Done Increment does not wait on the Sprint Goal. Multiple Increments may be created within a Sprint, and each is usable in its own right the moment it meets the Definition of Done.
Not correct Neither — the decision belongs to the Developers, since they built it and know whether it is safe
Wrong. The Developers decide how the work gets done and whether it meets the Definition of Done. What gets released, and when, is a decision about value, and that is the Product Owner's.
Why
Two questions that look alike have different owners. Is it Done — the Developers, against the Definition of Done. Should it go out — the Product Owner, on value. The sum of the Sprint's Increments is presented at the Sprint Review to support empiricism, but presentation is not permission. The line worth keeping: Done is the release gate, the Sprint Review is not.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- Scrum Guide section Increment
- What it says
- The Sprint Review should never be considered a gate to releasing value.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a set from objective 1 and space the ones you get wrong.
Practise Professional Scrum Master I
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