Posted by:
Johanna Rothman
on 08/31/2010
Some teams don’t do demos at the end of their iterations. Many of the teams who don’t do demos also have trouble finishing all the stories they committed to at the beginning of the iteration. They continue, iteration to iteration, not always finishing, not getting to releaseable at the end of the iteration. And, sometimes, these teams don’t do retrospectives because they are not done.
There’s significant value in a demo at the end of the iteration.
- The demo shows the team what they have done and not done in the iteration.
- The demo shows the product owner/customer what they have done and not done.
- The demo acts a a milestone–the team has to stop what they are doing to show the demo. They can’t keep going without doing a demo.
If you’re not demoing at the end of an iteration, reconsider. Use the demo to get feedback, record your velocity, and see if you are done enough with this project for now, or if you really need to continue working off this backlog.
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Johanna Rothman's complete blog can be found at: http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd
About Johanna Rothman
Johanna Rothman helps managers and leaders solve problems and seize opportunities.
She consults, speaks, and writes on managing high-technology product development. She enables managers, teams, and organizations to become more effective by applying her pragmatic approaches to the issues of project management, risk management, and people management.
Johanna writes two blogs: Managing Product Development and Hiring Technical People. She is the author of:
- Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects.
- 2008 Jolt Productivity award winning Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management
- Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (with Esther Derby)
- Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People
Find more of Johanna's articles and her blogs at www.jrothman.com.
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