Teamwork is hard, and this can be especially true in a business setting. Each team member has their own set of ideals, years of experience, and way of thinking. Completing a business initiative, whatever that may be, requires compromise, collaboration, and a whole lot of coordination.
Scrum is an Agile framework that helps teams align and establish a successful way of working, distributing accountability across the entire team as everyone delivers value for customers. Each team member assumes one of three Scrum roles: product owner, Scrum master, or developer.
In this post, we’ll cover the roles and the responsibilities of Scrum teams. You’ll also learn when to use a Scrum team and how to pick the right people for each role.
What is Scrum?
The Scrum framework is an Agile software development framework. Scrum is a way of organizing, approaching, and monitoring the completion of work. Although the Scrum method was originally created for software development, it can be adapted for all kinds of teams and tasks.
The principles of Scrum are meant to help teams deliver the best possible product to customers in an efficient, iterative manner. Scrum teams approach work in sprints that last from two to four weeks, with the goal of having a working iteration of the product at the end of each sprint. With each subsequent sprint, the product is developed and improves.
Scrum teams have daily standup meetings to monitor their progress, discuss next steps, and debrief. Additional meetings, such as sprint planning and sprint reviews, are held at the beginning and end of each sprint to help things run smoothly and identify areas of improvement.
What is a Scrum team?
A Scrum team is a team operating within the Scrum framework that typically has four to ten members. Scrum team members all assume a role within the team—either Scrum master, product owner, or as part of the development team. (More on these individual Agile team roles later!)
Collaboration plays a fundamental part in an Agile Scrum team’s day-to-day operations. There’s no room for big egos with a Scrum team structure. Team members cross-train one another to help the entire team gain the necessary expertise to complete tasks, which eliminates bottlenecks and spreads accountability across the team.
Scrum roles and responsibilities
As mentioned above, each member of a Scrum team assumes a role within the team, and each Scrum team role comes with its own set of responsibilities. We’ve listed the three Scrum roles and the responsibilities of each below.
Product owner
To successfully use the Scrum framework, your team has to be in tune with the customer’s product requirements. This requires near-constant communication with the customer. That being said, it’s not really feasible for your entire development team to sit down with the customer on a regular basis.
Enter the product owner, expert on all things product-related.
The product owner is the point of contact between a Scrum team and the customer, and there is only one product owner per Scrum team. They should know the ins and outs of the product, the customer’s requirements, and the tasks necessary to deliver those requirements.
The product owner is also responsible for maintaining and prioritizing the Scrum team’s product backlog, which is a working list of tasks to be completed.
