Scrum Roles and its importance

Scrum is a framework for developing and sustaining complex products. Scrum guide defines scrum as combination of its roles, ceremonies, artifacts and the roles which revolves around these three to bind it together. Scrum is also defined as lightweight, simple to understand but extremely difficult to master framework. When someone looks at Scrum theory, it appears as easiest thing to do/implement however when someone tries to implements it becomes difficult to sustain Scrum if not implemented holistically

As discussed above, Scrum roles is one of the pillar of scrum framework and very important to understand. There are three scrum roles

  1. Product Owner
  2. Scrum Master
  3. Development Team
Product Owner

The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product and the work of the Development Team. How this is done may vary widely across organizations, 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;
  • Ordering the items in the Product Backlog to best achieve goals and missions;
  • Ensuring 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; and,
  • Ensuring the Development Team understands items in the Product Backlog to the level needed

The Product Owner may do the above work, or have the Development Team do it. However, the Product Owner remains accountable.

Development Team

The Development Team consists of professionals who do the work of delivering a potentially releasable Increment of “Done” product at the end of each Sprint. Only members of the Development Team create the Increment. These are precisely all the members working on the increment during sprints. These teams are organized and brought together by organization for specific goal

Development Teams have the following characteristics:

  • They are self-organizing. No one tells the Team how to turn Product Backlog into Increments of potentially releasable functionality
  • Development Teams are cross-functional, with all of the skills as a team necessary to create a product Increment
  • Scrum recognizes no titles for Development Team members other than Developer, regardless of the work being performed by the person; there are no exceptions to this rule
  • Individual Development Team members may have specialized skills and areas of focus, but accountability belongs to the Development Team as a whole
  • Development Teams do not contain sub-teams dedicated to particular domains like testing or business analysis
Scrum Master

The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring Scrum is understood and enacted. Scrum Masters do this by ensuring that the Scrum Team adheres to Scrum theory, practices, and rules. The Scrum Master is a servant-leader for the Scrum Team.

Scrum Master has his services towards both PO as well as Development Team

Scrum Master Service to the Product Owner:

  • Finding techniques for effective Product Backlog management
  • Clearly communicating vision, goals, and Product Backlog items to the team
  • Teaching the team to create clear and concise Product Backlog items
  • Understanding long-term product planning in an empirical environment
  • Understanding and practicing agility
  • Facilitating Scrum events

Scrum Master Service to the Development Team:

  • Coaching the team in self-organization and cross-functionality
  • Teaching and leading the team to create high-value products
  • Removing impediments to the team’s progress
  • Facilitating Scrum events
  • Coaching the team in organizational environments in which Scrum is still evolving

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About Dharmalingam N

Dharmalingam.N holds a master degree in Business Administration and writes on a wide range of topics ranging from technology to business analysis. He has a background in Relationship Management. Some of the topics he has written about and that have been published include; project management, business analysis and customer engagement.

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