Experiement with Sprint Review

"It's a waste of time!"

What do you think that statement really means?

One imperative question pops up in my head whenever I hear that statement.

1. What is the true meaning of "waste" and "time"?

Waste as per thefreedictionary.com is defined as "To use, consume, spend, or expend thoughtlessly or carelessly". Waste has a very specific meaning. On the contrary Time is relative. Time is defined as "An interval separating two points on this continuum; a duration". So Clearly Time is relative and changes based on the two relative points.

Let's magically teleport ourselves into the delicious world of the Cake business. Let's assume that we are dealing with a REALLY PICKY customer and several other COMPETITOR CAKE BAKERIES. The PICKY customers want their cakes super customized. They are really busy but find some time to explain what kind of cake they need. Say one PICKY Customer wants a chocolate cake with 5 layers of alternating cream and chocolate. He also wants five cherries on top of it and it also needs to have the right amount of sweetness. The cream should be medium thick in all the layers and the icing on the cake needs to be of spectacular quality.

Two broad approaches to building the cake may be taken (in the Cake builders mind). One would be telling the customer that he will receive his full cake in a couple of days and spend those 2 days making sure the cake meets his requirements. The other approach could be to build a small piece of the cake in an hour or 2 and (considering his pickiness ) have him come to taste that small piece.

Here is the point I am trying to make, the time we spend inviting the customer and having him taste that small piece and getting his feedback would be much lesser than the amount of time spent building the cake all over again because he does not like the complete cake (built in all or nothing fashion). We would rather waste a small piece of the cake than waste a whole cake. So where is the wastage happening really? In checking at regular intervals with the PICKY Customer if the cake we are building are as per his standards or in the time spent building a cake which he definitely would not approve? Why on earth would you risk throwing away a whole cake vs throwing away a small piece?

The TRUTH of software development is that it is a BUSINESS. The customers are picky. Yep there are. The customers needs are constantly changing. If we don't give them what they want they will just move to a different product without a blink of an eye.

A Sprint Review gives an opportunity for the customer to take a sneak peak at what is being built. He gets to give feedback. If he realizes that that is not what he wants, the team that is building the product has the valuable opportunity to tweak the product as per the customers needs rather than fail.

So is this really a waste of time?