How To Do A Sprint Demo: The A - Z Guide
So as a sprint leader have created your OpenMRS sprint, made the announcement on talk and started the sprint.
What next?
Well, aside from working on the tickets in the sprint, you also have to remember to work on how the sprint will end.
By now, you already know that you are required to do a Demo, at the end of every sprint. This is why you are here, right?
What is a Demo?
A demo is a presentation (usually visual) that shows all the work that has been done during a sprint. The sprint leader takes the attendees through all the tickets covered in that sprint and demonstrates their impact on the project(for tickets that either affect how the project looks or works).
How do you plan a demo?
Planning the demo is the most important thing, as it ensures the smooth flow of the demo process. This means the planning should start long before the demo date, advisably at the beginning of the second leg of the sprint.
Key things/ to note:
- Doodle Poll and Demo Poll announcement
- Demo Announcement
- OpenMRS calendar update
- Setting up the video call on Hangouts Air
- Demo Reminder
- Attend the Demo
- Post video link in the demo announcement comments for those who may have missed the Demo
- Create a talk post with a summary of what was done during the sprint, including screenshots.
Step-by-step guide
Doodle Poll and Demo Poll Announcement
This is where you involve the community in selecting an ideal date and time for the demo.
Ideally, there are 3 days suitable for scheduling a demo, that is the day before the sprint ends, the day the sprint is ending, and one day after the sprint has ended(this option is only for special circumstances).
The doodle poll allows you to create a table of available date and time slots, then share them with the community so they can participate in choosing a time that would be most appropriate for them to attend the demo, on the provided dates.
Do not forget to announce the poll to the community, with links to the doodle poll, sprint announcement, and the sprint wiki.
Examples:
Demo Announcement
After sharing the demo poll and choosing a suitable day and time for the demo, it is time to announce the Demo. This should happen a day or two before the D-day, you’ll see why shortly.
This is where you let the community know that a day and time has been decided, and share the details of the demo, giving them a summary of what was worked on in the sprint, Demo details and links with the sprint details.
Example: Demo Announcement
OpenMRS calendar update
All calendar updates should happen at least a day before the actual demo.
First, you need to get access to the OpenMRS calendar, in order to be able to add the Demo event.
Follow this guide, to set up and add the demo event to the calendar, so everyone in the community can be aware of the scheduled event.
For more insights use this resource: Find your way around the OpenMRS calendar
Setting up the video call on Hangouts Air
Use this guide to set up the demo call on hangouts.
Youtube allows you to record the call in realtime.
Key things to note:
- Set up the hangouts on air call 1-3 hours on D-day, before the demo. This is because the link expires after a while and may not record the call if it has been created long before the actual call. Trust me, it is rather inconvenient to halt a call in the middle, so you can start the process over, because it wasn’t recording.
- Share the link with your teammates to ensure that it is working.
- I also recommend setting up a mock call, and recording it with either a friend or team member, just to get a feel of how it works and build your confidence before the actual demo call.
Demo Reminder
About 10 - 15 minutes before the demo call begins, post a reminder on Talk and tag the TTL. Ensure to also send them(TTL) an email reminder; complete with a hangouts link to the demo call.
The reminder should serve as an alert, thus if you choose to alert them 10 minutes ahead of time for example, the message should contain text along the lines of "... the demo will be starting in the next 10 minutes..." This is in considerartion of the people in the community, who are in different timezones, and may not have understood the time as presented in the Demo Announcement.
A demo reminder should contain:-
- A link to the Demo Call announcement
- A hangouts link to use if attending the Demo.
Example : Demo Reminder.
Note: If the Hangout link does not work as expected and you create a new link, do NOT update the demo announcement with the newly created link. Reason is that edit does not send a notification to people tagged in the post. Instead, reply to the post with the new link and mention all the necessary stakeholders again.
Attend/Lead the Demo
After joining the hangouts call, remember to hit Start Broadcast when you are ready to start the recording, and watch the top right corner for an indication that the call is now LIVE.
This entails going through all the tickets in the sprint. Demonstrating what he team has worked on in the sprint.
Start with the closed tickets and where possible demo the implementation on the UI. Proceed to the tickets awaiting review, those still in progress(you can explain what is left to be done on them). If there were any tickets in the sprint that are yet to be assigned, be sure to give some background on why they were not tackled in the sprint.
Make sure to engage your audience, encourage questions after each illustration before moving on to the next ticket.
When done with the tickets, facilitate a reflective session, where team members can say ‘what went well’, ‘what could have been better’ and ‘what they hope to improve on going forward’.
Allow for attendees to give feedback on the demo and make recommendations and observations. Usually works best if you go around the room, so everyone gets a chance to say something.
Thank people for coming and end the call/recording.
Share Demo Video Link
Remember to share the youtube link to the video of the demo, which will be generated immediately you stop the broadcast.
This link should be shared in the COMMENTS section of the Demo Announcement you made on Talk.
Do not forget to post a text summary of what was done during the sprint, including screenshots of the user interface. This can be very helpful to those who may not have the time for listening to the recording.
That's it. You did it!
Tip: You can create a bookmark folder and store this and other resources to find them easily whenever you need to.