Who Needs To Be In The Scrum Team

Jul 14

Are you planning a Scrum Team for an organization? This short article will introduce you to the main personnel that need to be part of the team.

The Scrum Team is a self-organizing team of cross-functional experts that is responsible for delivering a product to the customer. There are three essential roles in the Scrum Team. The product owner, who defines the product and manages the requirements, the scrum master, who facilitates and controls the process and the development team, which consists of developers, designers and testers.

The fundamental unit of Scrum is a small team of people. Each team consists of one Scrum Master, one Product Owner, and Developers. Within this team, there are no sub-teams or hierarchies. It is a cohesive unit of professionals focused on one objective at a time, the Product Goal.

Scrum Teams are cross-functional, meaning the members have all the skills necessary to create value each Sprint. They are also self-managing, meaning they internally decide who does what, when, and how.

The team is small enough to remain nimble and large enough to complete significant work within a Sprint, typically 10 or fewer people. In general, we have found that smaller teams communicate better and are more productive. If teams become too large, they should consider reorganizing into multiple cohesive teams, each focused on the same product. Therefore, they should share the same Product Goal, Product Backlog, and Product Owner.

The Scrum Team is responsible for creating a valuable and useful product increment at regular intervals. They prioritize the work that is most important to deliver at the end of each sprint. The most important work should be done first, so it can be deployed in time for when it's needed.

Let us introduce the three main team members; developers, product owners and the scrum master.

Team Members - Developers

Developers are the people in the Scrum Team that are committed to creating any aspect of a usable Increment with each Sprint.

The specific skills needed by the Developers are often broad and will vary with the domain of work. However, the Developers are always accountable for:

Creating a plan
Instilling quality
Adapting their work
Hold each other accountable

Developers are being constantly exposed to new technologies and frameworks. New tech is coming out or becoming more prominent with every event and conference.

This makes it all the more crucial to keep the skills of your developers up-to-date. Invest in training and consistently push your developers out of their comfort zone to make sure they can tackle the challenges of tomorrow.

Developers need to be an essential part of the Agile implementation. The risk of releasing irrelevant software after months of work is one reason why you’re much better off opting for Agile, iterative development methods.

Scrum practices at the very least will ensure developers reduce the risk of developing unnecessary features and creating a product that completely misses market expectations.

Team Members - Product Owner

The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the value of the product in accordance with the Scrum Team's work. This process can vary from person to person, team to team, and company to company.

The Product Owner is also accountable for effective Product Backlog management, which includes:

Developing and explicitly communicating the Product Goal
Creating and clearly communicating Product Backlog items
Ordering Product Backlog items
Ensuring that the Product Backlog is transparent, visible and understood

They may do the above work or may delegate the responsibility to others within the team. Regardless, the Product Owner remains accountable on the performance.

Despite the concise description in the Scrum framework, what makes a good Product Owner seems even more dependent on the context than the other roles. Organizations are well-advised to emphasize facilitative (soft) skills for Product Owners over technical, directive skills. A collaborative approach — where the team is fully involved with decisions, strategizing, and prioritizing — seems to be more effective.

The Product Owner needs the rest of the team to respect your decisions. They are responsible for ensuring that everyone is on the same page with any major changes that may happen in the process. These decisions are visible in the content and ordering of the Product Backlog, and through the inspectable Increment at the Sprint Review.

Team Members - Scrum Master

The Scrum Master is accountable for establishing Scrum. They do this by helping everyone understand Scrum theory and practice, both within the Scrum Team and the organization. The Scrum Master is accountable for the Scrum Team’s effectiveness. They do this by enabling the Scrum Team to improve its practices, within the Scrum framework.

Scrum Masters are true leaders who serve the Scrum Team and the larger organization.

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

Training the team members to become self-sufficient and work cooperatively with each other is a great way to provide accountability and get more done.
Helping the Scrum Team focus on creating high-value Increments that meet the Definition of Done.
Causing the removal of impediments to the Scrum Team’s progress.
Ensuring that all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive, and kept within the timebox.

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

Support techniques for effective Product Goal definition and Product Backlog management.
Encourage the Scrum Team to better understand the need for clear and concise Product Backlog items.
Establish empirical product planning for a complex environment.
Facilitating stakeholder collaboration as requested or needed.

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

Leading, training, and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption.
Planning and advising Scrum implementations within the organization.
Aid employees and stakeholders understand and enact an empirical approach for complex work.
Removing barriers between stakeholders and Scrum Teams.

Summary

A Scrum Team is a collaborative team of people who are responsible for the success of a project. Each team is made up of three types of members: the product owner, the development team and the Scrum Master. As outlined, these are all hugely essential to the performance of the development.

The product owner is responsible for maximizing business value and ROI by managing stakeholders, gathering requirements, defining scope, setting priorities and ensuring that all stakeholder needs are met. The development team is responsible for coding and testing to meet deadlines and produce high-quality software. The Scrum Master ensures that the process remains focused on achieving goals.

IT Management & Consulting International

IT Management & Consulting mission is to help businesses and organizations based in Stockholm improve productivity through Agile and Scrum leadership.

We have previously worked with a range of renowned companies, including Goldman Sachs, H&M Group, Cold Technology, and Clebag. Over the past seven years, we have helped clients reduce developing costs by up to 20% and improve on-time delivery by up to 65%.

We are always open to working with companies in Stockholm who are looking to increase their productivity.

Ondrej Papanek