How to Explain Sprints to Your Non-Technical CEO
How to Explain Sprints to your Non-Technical CEO  | VPE Coach
This post is based on a real coaching conversation with a client of VPE Coach. All names have been changed.By the time you become an engineering leader, you’ve probably worked in multiple development processes during your career. You’ve tried some things that worked and some things that haven’t, and you have some scars to show for it.One common development process that many startups choose is some form of sprints. Sprints come with both advantages and disadvantages, but for the sake of this article, let’s assume you’re on sprints because you’ve intentionally chosen them as your development process and you think they’re the right fit for your situation.But what do you say if your CEO or another executive challenges that decision? What do you say if they don’t understand sprints and don’t understand why you’re using them?One option would be to do a deep dive into how Agile works. Give them examples of how it’s successful at other companies. Tell them how agile works.Another (and my preferred) option is to explain the why behind your choice of sprints for your dev process before going into the how. I prefer this approach because it’s more likely to build alignment and surface the underlying issues.