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First Sprint Demo, Retrospective, and more

On Friday, 21 April, we will have the first Sprint Demo and Sprint Retrospective, and more. Some preparation is of course required the day before.

Outline of this Canvas page: a timeline is followed by short description of the internal sprint review, the sprint retrospective, and the Developer Interaction. Last but not least, comes the required preparation for the Sprint Demo, and the schedule for the demo.

Timeline

Thursday, 20 April, during the day: all teams prepare for the Sprint Demo and for the internal sprint review.

Special for team Quebec: on Thursday, 20 April, at 15:45, team Quebec will have the team's internal sprint review.

Friday, 21 April at 8:05 - teams Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, and Tango must leave room Ka-205. Another project course (II1302) will have Sprint Demos and Retrospectives there.

Friday, 21 April, from 8:20 to 12:00 (including breaks) - Sprint Demo for all teams in Ka-Sal B (Peter Weissglas). The Sprint demo will be in English.

Friday, 21 April, at 13:05: internal sprint review for all teams except team Quebec.

Special for team Quebec: on Friday, 21 April, at 13:05, team Quebec will have the Sprint Retrospective with teacher guidance. Meet the teacher by lift A, floor 4, at exactly the specified time. The teacher shows the team to a suitable conference room.

Friday, 21 April, at 14:05: the Developer Interaction, for selected developers from teams actively working with React, React Native, or Unity. The Developer interaction will be by the red sofas outside Ka-205. Other developers have slack time until 15:00.

Friday, 21 April, at 15:05: teams Romeo and Sierra will have their Sprint Retrospectives with teacher guidance. Lift A, floor 4. Teams Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, and Lima will have their Sprint Retrospectives in their team rooms, without teacher guidance.

Friday, 21 April, at 16:05: team Tango will have the Sprint Retrospective with teacher guidance. Lift A, floor 4.

Internal Sprint Review

The internal sprint review is more detailed than the demo. Please see the book, page 80-82. The recommended time for the internal sprint review is 45 minutes. Please make sure that the team takes a break after the internal sprint review.

At 13:05 or later on Friday, some teams will have scheduled retrospectives guided by a teacher. Other teams have their Sprint Retrospectives after the break that follows their internal sprint review. The recommended length for a Sprint Retrospective in this course is 55 minutes.

Sprint Retrospective

The Sprint Retrospective is the most important Scrum event, according to Henrik Kniberg's book. See the chapter "How we do sprint retrospectives", pages 83-94. Here follows is a brief summary.

This meeting is about methods and ways of working. Technical discussions should be deferred to another meeting.

First thing: select a secretary. The Scrum Master and the Product Owner have special roles already. Therefore, one of the others should be secretary for the retrospective.

The Scrum Master summarizes the sprint in 1 minute. State the sprint goal, did we achieve it, was there any important events or decisions?

Do "the rounds". Each person gets to say, without being interrupted, what was good, what the team might try next sprint, and what could have been better. Any discussion is deferred until after "the rounds".

After "the rounds", it is usually clear what the most important thing is, and the team can start discussing that. The focus should be, how can we make the next sprint better?

Near the end, the Scrum Master gives a short summary of the most important discussions, with help from the secretary. The end result should be three groups of bullet points:

  1. Which methods were good - make sure we continue to do them.
  2. Which new methods should we try next sprint (up to three items, trying too many new things at once doesn't work).
  3. Which methods didn't work for us (so we can stay away from them).

The first two groups of bullet points are positive, and contain good things that the team should do. The last group is negative, with things that should be done differently.

Developer Interaction

The Developer Interaction is an informal gathering of developers working with some core techniques. The purpose is to get to know eachother, discuss implementations, problems and solutions, and to share experience. There will be four parallel meetings:

  • React Experience Interaction - for all developers who have used React, or React Native, before the start of this project (about three people). Please prepare as described below.
  • Unity Experience Interaction - for all developers who have used Unity before the start of this project (about six people). Please prepare as described below.
  • React Learning Interaction - for one or two developers per team, who are learning React, or React Native, for the first time during this project. Selected team members should prepare as described below.
  • Unity Learning Interaction - for one or two developers per team, who are learning Unity for the first time during this project. Selected team members should prepare as described below.

If your team is using React, React Native, or Unity, please select one or two team members who are learning React/React Native/Unity for the first time during this project, and would like to meet others for informal discussion. Selected team members should prepare as described below.

The first Developer Interaction will be on Friday, 21 April, 2023, at 14:05. The planned length is 45 minutes.

React/Unity Experience Interaction preparation

Before the meeting, please

  1. Find ONE thing about Unity/React/React Native that you know well, and that could be useful other teams.
  2. Find ONE thing about Unity/React/React Native that you would like some help with.
  3. Recall how and why you first started working with Unity/React/React Native. That's "first in your life", and not necessarily in this project.

React/Unity Learning Interaction preparation

Before the meeting, please

  1. Find ONE thing about Unity/React/React Native that you have learned, and that could be useful other teams.
  2. Find ONE thing about Unity/React/React Native that you would like some help with.
  3. Recall how and why your team decided to use Unity/React/React Native.

Developer Interaction: how to do it

At the Developer Interaction, different tables are marked for different meetings. Join the assigned table for your meeting. To get the meeting started, find the Starting Player (by the same method as in the Teamwork Exercise). Then do a "round" of introductions, where each developer speaks briefly (no more than one minute in total for all items combined) about items 3, 2, and 1 above, in that order.

After the "round", you will know what is most important and should be discussed first. If in doubt, ask the Starting Player.

What is React, React Native, and Unity?

Generally speaking, React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces, and React Native is a related tool for cross-platform development. For more information, see https://react.dev/ Links to an external site. and/or https://reactnative.dev/ Links to an external site. 

Unity is a cross-platform game-engine, with a matching development environment. For more information, see https://unity.com/ Links to an external site.

Preparation for the demo

All teams prepare a very short talk and a (longer) exciting demo. The team also prepares for questions and suggestions from the audience.

In each team, all members must be prepared to do the presentation and demo. Before the time comes for the team to start, one person will be selected by the teacher to actually give the presentation and demo. The selection will be made randomly, with dice or some similar method.

Generally, see the chapter "How we do sprint demos" in the course book (pages 79-82).

A recommended 12-minute template for each team is as follows. The times may vary, but: if a team spends 4 minutes or more before getting to the demo, the presentation must be cut short to make room for the demo.

  1. Introduction to the product: what the team is creating. Length: 1 minute, with 1 presentation slide.
  2. Sprint summary: what was the sprint goal, did we achieve it, and if we didn't: why not? Length: 1 minute, with 1 presentation slide. Why things went wrong (if they did) can be very helpful to other teams, and could make this part a little longer (perhaps with an extra slide if necessary).
  3. Live demo of the product prototype. Make sure to demo all stories that the team has finished. You can demo several stories together if the team finished many small stories. Length: 5 minutes, optionally with 1 presentation slide listing user-stories (with the unfinished ones marked clearly). The demo is important - make time for the demo.
  4. Questions and suggestions from the audience Length: 5 minutes. Questions and suggestions are important - make time for them, prepare for them.

In some cases, one or two team-members may be unable to perform the demo. As an example, this could happen if the demo requires software that some team-member cannot install (such as, Windows software which doesn't run on MacOS). Then it is OK that some other team-member screen-shares the product, while the selected person talks about what we see.

Video clips are allowed but not encouraged. A live demo is preferable.

Schedule for the first Sprint Demo

  • 8:20-8:27 Intro
  • 8:30-8:42 team Bravo
  • 8:45-8:57 team Echo
  • 9:00-9:15 break
  • 9:15-9:27 team Delta
  • 9:30-9:42 team Charlie
  • 9:45-9:57 team Sierra
  • 10:00-10:15 break
  • 10:15-10:27 team Tango
  • 10:30-10:42 team Quebec
  • 10:45-11:57 team Lima
  • 11:00-11:15 break
  • 11:15-11:27 team Foxtrot
  • 11:30-11:42 team Alpha
  • 11:45-11:57 team Romeo
  • 11:57-12:00 final words