Scrum Roles Posted on Jan 22, 2014 by Roland in Agile & Lean |

The popular process framework Scrum has its own vocabulary. This week we start of a series of 1-pagers explaining Scrum words. First are Roles: Product Owner, Development Team and Scrum Master.

Main source was the Scrum Guide. The Venn diagramm is inspired by Henrik Kniberg.

Did you know there are compilations of our 1-pagers? About Agile & Scrum, Facilitation and for Product Owners

Content of the 1-Pager:

A Scrum team consists of a cross-functional Development Team, 1 Product Owner and 1 Scrum Master

The Product Owner (PO) is responsible for deciding what to build next in order to maximize product value. The PO maintains and prioritizes the Product Backlog, which contains product requirements. Furthermore, the PO:

• Makes sure everyone understands upcoming backlog items

• Keeps contact with stakeholders, getting their requirements and information

• Decides which items are relevant – and which need to be dropped

The Development Team consists of everyone directly building the product. They are self-organizing

and decide how to turn backlog items into working solutions. The Development Team is responsible for the quality of the outcome.

The Development Team should be cross-functional, i.e. all skills needed to create an increment are present. Non-developers such as testers and UX people are also part of the Development Team. Everyone is called “deveolper”. No one has a special title.

The Scrum Master (SM) is a servant-leader who ensures that everyone adheres to the Scrum rules. The SM helps everyone improve by coaching, teaching, & serving:

• Help everyone to work together more effectively and enable self-organization

• Remove impediments and external disturbances so that the team can work

• Facilitate Scrum events

• Help the team, stakeholders and the wider organization to understand Scrum