Two key stakeholders enjoyed the Sprint Review and ask the Scrum Master whether they may also join the Sprint Retrospective — they have ideas about how the team could work faster and would like to help. What is the accurate position?

Professional Scrum Master I, objective 3. Managing products with agility hard

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The options

Not correct Yes — stakeholders attend all Scrum events, since transparency applies to everyone inspecting the team's work

Wrong. Transparency is about the artefacts being visible, not about every event being open. The Sprint Review is the event Scrum builds around stakeholders.

Not correct Yes, provided the Product Owner agrees, since the Product Owner represents stakeholders

Wrong. Representing stakeholder needs in the Product Backlog is not authority over who attends a team event, and Scrum gives the Product Owner no gatekeeping role over the Retrospective.

Correct No — the Sprint Retrospective is the Scrum Team inspecting how the last Sprint went with regard to individuals, interactions, processes, tools and its Definition of Done

Correct. It is the team's own inspection of itself, and the candour it depends on is the first thing an audience costs. Note that Scrum names an invite-others provision only for Sprint Planning, where the Scrum Team may bring in people for advice.

Not correct No, and the Scrum Master should stay out as well, so the Developers can speak freely about the way the team is run

Wrong, and it is the seductive one because the instinct behind it is sound. But the Scrum Master is a member of the Scrum Team and is accountable for that team's effectiveness — the event is theirs too, not something they facilitate from outside.

Why

Sort the events by whose inspection they are. The Sprint Review inspects the product with the people who care about it, so stakeholders belong there. The Sprint Retrospective inspects the Scrum Team — its interactions, its processes, its Definition of Done — so the Scrum Team is who attends, all three accountabilities included. When a stakeholder wants to influence how the team works, the honest answer is that the Review is their event and the impediment route runs through the Scrum Master.

Where this comes from

Cited
Scrum Guide section Sprint Retrospective
What it says
The Scrum Team inspects how the last Sprint went with regards to individuals, interactions, processes, tools, and their Definition of Done.

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