Roles & Responsibilities of Scrum Team Members

Scrum is the most commonly used agile methodology adopted by organizations to work in collaboration with scrum members. Team collaboration plays an important role in the success of any organization or corporation, keeping track of the project requirements to maintain the quality of the end product. It is an Agile software development approach in which a development team establishes goals for delivering new software features and capabilities in well-defined, iterative cycles. Every two to four weeks, each iteration produces modest but significant elements of a larger project.

A scrum team is made up of three major roles, Product Owner, Scrum Master, and development team member. Each scrum team role has its respective scrum team responsibilities. While there is one project owner and one scrum master, there can be multiple scrum members in the development team.

Now let’s go through the scrum team roles and scrum team responsibilities in detail:

Product Owner

Scrum teams are flexible and responsive, and it is the responsibility in scrum team of the Product Owner to ensure that they are delivering the most out of it. The product owner is the one who represents the business and is in charge of the development team, guides and prioritizes the projects that are going to get delivered. The product owner does not only deal with the customers but also has a vision of the quality that the Team is going to deliver to the customer. It also takes into account the needs of other stakeholders in the company. As a result, the product owner must prioritize the work based on all of these inputs. This is undoubtedly their most critical role because conflicting priorities and unclear instructions will not only limit the Team’s effectiveness but will also undermine the development team’s important trust connection with the business.

Moreover, a product owner ensures that the Scrum team is aligned with the broader product goals to which they are contributing. They are aware of the product’s commercial requirements, such as client expectations and market trends. Product owners generally communicate with product managers and other stakeholders outside the Scrum team because they need to understand how the Scrum team fits into larger goals. Agile teams are built to inspect and adapt to changing circumstances. That means a shift in priorities could result in significant changes to the team structure, work products, and end result. As a result, it’s critical for scrum teams to succeed and for only one individual to determine priorities. Product owner is in charge of the development team.

Scrum Master

A Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring that a Scrum team is running as efficiently as possible while adhering to Scrum values. It collaborates with the product owner and the Scrum team to improve and optimize processes when possible. This entails keeping the Team on schedule, planning and leading meetings, and resolving any issues that may arise. Scrum masters may also play a larger role within an organization, assisting in the implementation of Scrum concepts. They are commonly referred to as the Scrum team’s “servant leader” because they are both a leader and a behind-the-scenes supporter. Scrum can seem different from company to organization and Team to Team; therefore, a Scrum master’s responsibilities are diverse.

A Scrum Master, on the other hand, can have the following tasks in general:

Development Team

The Development Team is an important part of the Scrum Team. A development team is made up of experts who do the tasks in a Scrum sprint on the ground level. This means that members of the development team can be computer engineers, designers, writers, data analysts, or any other job that is required to meet sprint objectives. The Development Team, unlike the other Scrum Team roles, focuses on the actual implementation of the potentially deliverable software/increment that is due at the conclusion of each Sprint. The development team frequently collaborates to map out goals and plans for accomplishing them, rather than simply waiting for instructions.

The Team is built up with all of the necessary skill sets in mind to develop, test, and deliver product increments without outside assistance every Sprint. As a result, the Team must be self-sufficient and cross-functional. The Development Team does not rely on anyone outside of the Scrum Team for assistance and manages their own work. The Development Team as a whole is always accountable for generating Increments, but everyone on the Scrum Team is responsible for the total delivery.

People with specialized expertise such as Front-end Developers, Backend Developers, Dev-Ops, QA Experts, Business Analysts, DBA, and others may be on the Development Team, but they are all referred to as Developers; no other titles are permitted. The Development Team is not allowed to have sub-teams such as the testing team, the requirement specification team, and so on. Not every member of the development team will have the same scrum team responsibilities. The roles in scrum team, for a development team are also determined by the Scrum team’s end goals. However, in general, you might find that a development team is tasked with the following:

Conclusion

The three Scrum roles—Scrum master, product owner, and development team—are supposed to increase a team’s transparency, efficiency, and adaptability. The scrum team responsibilities are considered critical to success in traditional Scrum teams. Many firms, however, tailor Scrum concepts to their specific requirements. Experienced developers, for example, may discover that they can spread project management amongst themselves and work without a Scrum master. If you’re thinking of merging the role of scrum members , make sure you have procedures in place to ensure that production goals are taken into account, and Scrum principles are followed.