Teams in Scrum
Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash
A highly efficient Scrum Team self-manages and creates value on a regular basis. They have some decision-making power, take full ownership of their work, and are continuously working to improve themselves and the agile value delivery process.
A Scrum Team needs three specific roles: Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development Team. And because Scrum Teams are cross-functional, the development team includes all the necessary roles to be self-sufficient, testers, designers, UX specialists, architects, and DevOps engineers in addition to developers.
The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team and the organization in understanding the theory, practices, rules, and values. He/She helps team members to grow and coaches his/her peers towards success.
The Product Owner owns the product, optimizes the value of the product, and manages the Product Backlog. He/She helps team members to collaborate with stakeholders and creates a vision that is aligned to the stakeholders’ needs.
Developers along with the rest of the team own the work and turn Product Backlog Items into valuable Increments. They are responsible for the quality of the product and have all the skills to organize their work.
If Scrum is done well, a lot of traditional management and leadership responsibilities will move to the Scrum team. Depending on how mature the team is, Agile Leaders would start delegating to the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Developers.
The agile leader role will evolve from being in charge of results to being in charge of the environment. This transfer of responsibility and these new objectives will have to be formalized and recognized in the organization if they want the scrum culture to become a reality. The concept of delegation takes on a broader meaning here, as in not only delegating the execution but also the responsibility of it.