In order to detect the three-dimensional distribution of transient wavefront, a shearing interferometric measurement system with common path configuration is proposed. The system uses a chessboard grating and aperture to divide the wavefront under test into four replicas with shear. Each two of the replicas are coherent to form an interferogram with high carrier frequency. According to the transport of intensity equation and Fourier optics, the theoretical model of shearing interferometric measurement system is established and the wavefront under test is reconstructed by Fourier transform algorithm. A calibration method of shear is proposed. The design of chessboard grating is given by discussing linear carrier frequency and diffraction efficiency of the grating. Experimentally the proposed system is applied to measure transient wavefront, and automatic measurement with high precision is achieved. Peak-to-valley (PV) value, root-mean-square (RMS) value and Zernike fitting coefficient of the measured result are in good agreement with those obtained by SID4 wavefront sensor. This system can be applied to transient wavefront measurement.