Iteration review
The iteration review is the team-level demo at the end of each iteration in which completed stories are shown to the team and to direct stakeholders. It's a working session, not a presentation: the team demonstrates the actual increment of working software and stakeholders give immediate feedback.
Iteration review is the team-level analogue of Scrum's sprint review. The SAFe positioning: the iteration review is for direct stakeholders and the team itself; the System Demo (at iteration end or shortly after) is for the broader ART and Business Owners. The two together create a feedback rhythm at two granularities. Common failure: treating iteration review as a status report ('here's what we did') rather than a working demo ('here's the software, try it'). The latter produces useful course-correction; the former produces nothing the team didn't already know.
Related terms
- System demo
The System Demo is SAFe's event at the end of each iteration in which the integrated solution — every team's work combined into a working artefact — is demonstrated to Business Owners and stakeholders.
- Iteration planning
Iteration planning is the team-level event at the start of each SAFe iteration (typically 2 weeks) where the team selects stories from its backlog to commit to, breaks them into tasks, and confirms team capacity.
- Iteration retrospective
The iteration retrospective is the team-level event at iteration end where the team inspects how it worked together — process, collaboration, technical practices — and commits to specific changes for the next iteration.