Scrum-Roles-Series

Scrum Roles and Responsibilities

Scrum-Roles-Series

The Scrum Team

The Scrum Team consists of 3 roles a Product Owner, the Development Team, and a Scrum Master.

Scrum Teams are self organising and cross-functional, the Development Team does not recognise more specific roles within it but Cross-functional teams have all the competencies needed to accomplish the work without depending on others that are not part of the Scrum team. The team model in Scrum is designed to optimise flexibility, creativity, and productivity.

Self organising teams choose how best to accomplish their work, rather than being directed by others outside the team. 

The Product Owner

The Product Owner is responsible for maximising the value of the product resulting from work of the Development Team. How this is done may vary widely across organisations, Scrum Teams, and individuals.

The Product Owner is the sole person responsible for managing the Product Backlog. Product Backlog management includes:

  • Clearly expressing Product Backlog items
  • Prioritising the items in the Product Backlog to best achieve product goals.
  • Optimising the value of the work the Development Team performs.
  • Ensuring that the Product Backlog is visible, transparent, and clear to all, and shows what the Scrum Team will work on next.
  • Ensuring the Development Team understands items in the Product Backlog to the level needed.

The Product Owner may do the above work or ask for assistance from members of the Development team. This could be anyone who can help support and guide the Product Owner. However the Product Owner remains accountable.

The Product Owner is one person, not a committee or team. The Product Owner may represent the desires of a committee or key Stakeholders in the Product Backlog, but those wanting to change a Product Backlog item’s priority must address the Product Owner first.

For the Product Owner to succeed, the entire organisation must respect his or her decision. The Product Owner’s decisions are visible in the content and ordering of the Product Backlog. No one can force the Development Team to work from a different set of requirements.

The Development Team

The Development Team consists of professionals who do the work of delivering a potentially releasable Increment to the definition of “Done” at or by the end of each Sprint. A “Done” increment is required at the Sprint Review. Only members of the Development Team create the Increment.

Development Teams are structured and empowered by the organisation to organise and manage their own work. The resulting synergy optimises the Development Team’s overall efficiency and effectiveness.

Development Teams have the following characteristics:

  • They are self-organizing. No one tells the Development Team how to turn Product Backlog items into Increments of potentially releasable functionality
  • Development Teams are cross-functional, with all the skills as a team necessary to create a product Increment.
  • Scrum recognises no titles for Development Team members, regardless of the work being performed by the person.
  • Scrum recognises no sub-teams in the Development Team, regardless of domains that need to be addressed like testing, architecture, operations, or business analysis.
  • Individual Development Team members may have specialised skills and areas of focus, but accountability belongs to the Development Team as a whole

The Scrum Master

The Scrum Master is responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. Scrum Masters do this by helping everyone understand Scrum theory, practices, rules, and values.

The Scrum Master is a servant-leader for the Scrum Team. The Scrum Master helps those outside the Scrum Team understand which of their interactions with the Scrum Team are helpful and which aren’t. The Scrum Master helps everyone change these interactions to maximise the value created by the Scrum Team we will be looking at some tools I have used in a later series.

Scrum Master Service to the Product Owner

The Scrum Master serves the Product Owner in several ways, including:

  • Ensuring that goals, scope, and product domain are understood by everyone on the Scrum Team as well as possible
  • Finding techniques for effective Product Backlog management
  • Helping the Scrum Team understand the need for clear and concise Product Backlog items
  • Understanding product planning in an empirical environment
  • Ensuring the Product Owner knows how to arrange the Product Backlog to maximise value
  • Understanding and practicing agility
  • Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed

Scrum Master Service to the Development Team

The Scrum Master serves the Development Team in several ways, including:

  • Coaching the Development Team in self-organisation and cross-functionality
  • Helping the Development Team to create high-value products
  • Removing impediments to the Development Team’s progress
  • Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed
  • Coaching the Development Team in organisational environments in which Scrum is not yet fully adopted and understood.

Scrum Master Service to the Organisation

The Scrum Master serves the organisation in several ways, including:

  • Leading and coaching the organisation in its Scrum adoption
  • Planning Scrum implementations within the organisation
  • Helping employees and stakeholders understand and enact Scrum and empirical product development
  • Causing change that increases the productivity of the Scrum Team
  • Working with other Scrum Masters to increase the effectiveness of the application of Scrum in the organisation.

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