Use UI Automation to Assist Agile Showcases

Real agile projects take showcases seriously. However, many fake agile projects have no showcases as the team is simply not capable of demonstrating the app. This article shows an effective and proven solution.

Showcase is considered one of the Agile ceremonies in software development. It is probably the most important one, especially for the teams without on-site customers. Showcases engage the customers to gather feedback (to make sure the development is staying on track). It is also the opportunity to provide real confidence to the customers.

However, I have found fewer and fewer showcases in so-called “Agile” projects in recent years. The teams do ‘Daily-standup’, ‘Sprint planning’, and ‘Retrospectives’, but not real showcases. Though some teams do showcases, their sessions are focused more on showing Agile boards and Velocity Charts on JIRA, rather than showing the implemented user stories in the current sprint.

Before I get to the reason, I would like to share my observation first. The customers DO NOT care about the velocity/burn charts; they don't like seeing JIRA there. They care and only care about seeing the features that were planned (and promised). Some might argue…