We are living in an age where speed is the secret to success, and the one who gets the product out first is the winner. In this digital transformation world, organizations that have adopted Agile will succeed; as Agile is all about adaptability, quick delivery and customer focus.
Meanwhile, read about Agile vs Scrum and Scrum Interview Questions for more information!
Scrum, the most used Agile framework is all about addressing complex problems through adaptation and value creation. Scrum teams are at the core of a Scrum project. What best describes a Scrum team? Let’s attempt to answer this question.
What is Scrum?
A term borrowed from rugby; Scrum actually means ‘to huddle’. It signifies how rugby payers huddle together and work as a team in order to gain possession of the ball. Like its namesake in the sport of rugby, Scrum in Agile software development also signifies a process that brings together a team of individuals who work together under complex circumstances to create a product. The term was first used by researchers Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka in their 1986 research paper, "The New Product Development Game."
“Scrum is a framework that encourages teams to learn through experiences, self-organize while working on a problem, and reflect on their wins and losses to continuously improve”—Atlassian Agile coach
What is the Scrum Methodology?
Scrum is a framework under the umbrella of agile development methodologies, along with Kanban, Extreme Programming, Feature-Driven Development, Crystal, and Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM).
The Scrum methodology focuses on delivering products of the highest quality through effective collaboration between teams involved.
Scrum is based on the three pillars of empirical process control, which are transparency, inspection, & adaptation
The Scrum Framework
Scrum is an Agile methodology framework that follows an iterative and incremental approach for project management, and breaks down large projects into small chunks called epics and sprints.
Each sprint results in the creation of a product and the cumulative effort of all the sprints adds to the improvement of the overall end product. The Scrum framework encourages high level collaboration among team members which comes in handy in tough project situations
What is a Scrum Team?
Scrum.org is what best describes a Scrum Team by defining it as ‘a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.’ So, in essence Scrum teams are self-organized and highly productive teams that deliver quality products in a highly collaborative environment.
A Scrum team’s success is based on the Scrum values that they share. These are:
- Commitment: Commitment is one of the hallmarks of Agile teams. Teams collaborate and work on a common goal through a high degree of communication and trust between them.
- Courage: Scrum teams must have the courage to fail. Fail fast is a benefit in Agile and Scrum as this helps them discover hidden faults and recover quickly. Scrum teams must have the courage to try new things, innovate, fail and then learn from their failures to ultimately achieve success.
- Focus: Having focus is a mandatory requirement of Scrum teams which ultimately helps them limit the work in progress.
- Openness: Transparency and openness is also one of the empirical processes on which Scrum is based. Teams that are open and transparent with one another trust each other more and work better towards reaching a successful end point.
- Respect: Respect between team members is a must, irrespective of the methodology or framework they use. Respect between Scrum Masters, Product Owners and Development team members will help foster trust and enhance collaboration and co-operation between teammates.
What describes a Scrum team?
A Scrum team consists of three main roles. These are:
- Development Team
- Scrum Master
- Scrum Product Owner
The development team consists of five to eleven people including developers, testers, architects and others. The Scrum team has a shared goal and through their collaboration and skills of self-organization and motivation, they reach this goal.
What is a Scrum Master?
The Scrum Master, also known as the servant leader, helps empower the team and guides them on the use of the Scrum framework. Their main responsibility is to ensure that the development team can perform to the best of its abilities, and they do this by removing obstacles or impediments that may hinder the progress of the development team. The Scrum Master is the agile coach and mentor who helps team members understand Agile and its processes and aids in enterprise-wide agile transformations.
The Product Owner
The Product Owner is the bridge connecting the stakeholders and the development team. They define the product vision and through their skills and intelligence drive the project with help from the Scrum Master and the development team. The product owner maintains the perfect balance between the stakeholder and the development team, helping each understand the other’s point of view. They are also well-versed in agile and scrum values and principles and guide the team and well as the stakeholders on the agile ways of working. Creating stakeholder satisfaction is an important responsibility of the product owner and they do this by ensuring that requirements are met, and the product created meets quality standards expected by the customer.
The Development Team
The development team is the driving force of the Scrum project. This team is empowered by the Scrum Master and the Product Owner to take decisions and be as autonomous and independent as possible. At the same time there is a high level of collaboration and transparency among the team members and between the dev team and the Product Owner. The dev team is balanced and helps the product owner manage the backlog and deliver an acceptable product at the end of every sprint.
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Why is the Scrum team required for organizations?
Any organization that wants to go agile and implement projects using the scrum framework has to do so by getting together an efficient scrum team. Scrum has proven to be extremely successful at team levels and it is the Scrum team that drives the project to success. Scrum teams with their collaboration, self-organization, innovation and collocation are able to drive success and business value.
A table that summarizes the Scrum Team’s responsibilities in the various Scrum processes
| Scrum Phase | Scrum process | Scrum Master responsibility | Product Owner responsibility | Development team responsibility |
|---|
Initiate
| 1. Create Project Vision | -- | -- | -- |
| 2. Identify Scrum Master and Stakeholder(s) | -- | Identifies Scrum Master | -- |
| 3. Form Scrum Team | Along with the PO decides dev team | Along with the SM decides dev team | -- |
| 4. Develop Epic(s) | Helps PO in developing epics | Develops epics and arranges user group meetings | Helps PO in developing epics |
| 5. Create Prioritized Product Backlog | Helps PO in epic refinement | Refines epics | Helps PO in epic refinement |
| 6. Conduct Release Planning | Helps PO and dev team with backlog prioritization and determining sprint length | Reviews the backlog and develops release planning schedule | Helps PO with backlog prioritization and determining sprint length |
Plan and Estimate | 7. Create User Stories | Helps dev team and PO write user stories | Writes user stories and incorporates them into the Prioritized Product Backlog | Writes user stories |
| 8. Approve, Estimate, and Commit User Stories | Estimates the effort required to deliver the product defined in each user story | Approves user stories for the sprint | Along with the SM estimates the effort for each sprint and |
| 9. Create Tasks | Helps dev team break down the stories into tasks | Helps dev team break down the stories into tasks | Breaks down the approved stories into tasks and create a task list |
| 10. Estimate Tasks | Helps the dev team create the effort estimated task list | Helps the dev team create the effort estimated task list | Creates the effort estimated task list |
| 11. Create Sprint Backlog | Helps the PO create sprint backlog | Creates the sprint backlog and lists the tasks that need to be completed in the sprint | Helps the PO create sprint backlog |
Implement
| 12. Create Deliverables | Guides the dev team | Helps dev team if needed | Works on creating sprint deliverables |
| 13. Conduct Daily Stand-up | Arranges and conducts the meetings | May or may not attend the meetings | Attends the meetings and defines any problems or issues faced |
| 14. Groom Prioritized Product Backlog | Helps PO to groom the backlog | Updates and maintains the backlog continuously | Helps PO to groom the backlog |
| Review and Retrospect | 15. Convene Scrum of Scrums | Helps teams collaborate and notes any impediments that may be hindering work | -- | Mentions their progress or any issues they may be facing |
| 16. Demonstrate and Validate Sprint | Helps dev team in displaying what it has created | Approves or rejects what the dev team demonstrates | Demonstrates deliverables to PO and stakeholders |
| 17. Retrospect Sprint | Meets with dev team to ponder on lessons learnt during the sprint. Documents the recommendations | -- | With scrum master retrospect's on sprint and uses the recommendations for the next sprint |
Release
| 18. Ship Deliverables | Along with other team members ships acceptable deliverables | Along with other team members ships acceptable deliverables | Along with other team members ships acceptable deliverables |
| 19. Retrospect Project | Gets together with other team members and identifies the lessons learnt | Gets together with other team members and identifies the lessons learnt | Gets together with other team members and identifies the lessons learnt |
So, what best describes a Scrum team? There are many facets to a Scrum team, but the most relatable description would be a highly interconnected and cohesive unit that works together to solve issues. A well-organized Scrum team can raise the ROI of an organization and ensure long term stakeholder commitment.
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