Who is a Scrum developer?

A Scrum Developer is a professional who works within a Scrum Team, focusing on delivering high-quality, incremental value in a product development process. They collaborate closely with the Product Owner and Scrum Master to ensure that the team meets its goals and adheres to Scrum principles. Their responsibilities include designing, coding, testing, and maintaining the product, all while embracing continuous improvement and adaptability.

Who is a Scrum Developer?

The Scrum method of project management is an effective framework for implementing an Agile software project. Any team using the Scrum method to develop a software project basically comprise of three entities, namely the Product Owner, the ScrumMaster, and the Development team. Any member of the development team apart from the Scrum Master and Product Owner is considered as a developer. 

More about the Development team

The Development team not just comprises of programmers and software developers, but contain a mix of professionals including software designers, architects, business analysts, documentation experts, and software testers. The responsibility of each member of the Development team is to deliver a functional element or chunk of the overall product at the end of each sprint cycle.

What does a Developer in Scrum Team do? 

A developer in a Scrum Team can perform any function depending on their role. Within the Scrum Team any member apart from the Product Owner and Scrum Master is considered a developer. Hence any work done by the team that contributes value in an increment counts as the responsibility of a developer. 

The Scrum Developers primary responsibility is towards getting the work done. To achieve this, they need to: 

• Create a Plan for every Sprint: In a Scrum team, work is achieved in fixed time periods called Sprints. Each Sprint comes with its own goals. Developers are responsible for creating a Sprint backlog to track and complete tasks that lead up to the accomplishment of Sprint goals. 
• Maintaining Quality: Developers are tasked with the responsibility of maintaining quality. To ensure this they need to understand the definition of done as agreed by all stakeholders. 
• Adapting the Plan: Developers stay on track by constantly measuring the amount of work done against the target and making changes in the plans to achieve Sprint goals in time. 
• Ownership: Scrum teams are self-organizing and cross functional. So, each member or developer is responsible for the part they are required to do.  Hence, they hold themselves accountable for what they have committed to do and they will also hold each other accountable. 
• Coordinate: Every developer in a Scrum team must work in coordination with the Scrum Master and Product Owner giving them feedback, status reports, and alerting them to challenges.  

The responsibilities for developers can vary depending on the role that they are expected to perform. A lot of the terminology used in reference to Scrum is from software development which was the first industry to use this framework. Below passage shows what the responsibility of a developer looks like in a software development team. For other industries these terms are adapted to the nature of the tasks involved. Scrum is about accomplishing goals in increments while adding value to the user. 

Development team members, in addition to their core skills, have the following responsibilities when working for a Scrum project:

• Estimate the effort required in completing their tasks.
• Achieve the goals defined for each sprint.
• Learn to write user stories for product features and divide them into smaller tasks.
• Identify any impediments to the progress of the project and report the same to the ScrumMaster.
• Attend daily scrum meetings and report the completed and planned tasks for each day.
• Collaborate effectively with other Development team members.

Thus, in addition to their core capabilities, each development team member must possess additional qualities, such as being an efficient team player, self-motivation, self-organization, analytical, and good collaboration skills.

All About the Scrum Developer

A Scrum developer is a professionally-certified Scrum expert and can be any member of the Scrum development team. The Scrum developer is skilled in the Scrum methodology and can work effectively with any Scrum development team.

A Scrum developer is well-versed in the basic understanding of Scrum framework, and how to implement it effectively for any software project.

A professional Scrum developer has the following traits and qualities:

• Possesses a deep knowledge of the Scrum methodology and good learning skills.
• Possess technical knowledge and skills of their core skill that could be software analysis, software programming or coding, UI design, or software testing capabilities.
• Excellent team skills that can help them collaborate and work with other team members.

Certification Courses

Certification courses for Scrum Developer are available from a number of software training institutes. A professional Scrum Developer certificate can acquire basic or advanced skills in Scrum methodology and learn to use it effectively in any software project.

Scrum Developer courses are suitable for any member of the Development team, including software architects, programmers, database experts, testers, and any one possessing any technical knowledge of software products. Professionals, who have previously worked in an agile framework or in any Scrum team, are best qualified to attend these Scrum certification courses.

Top Certified Scrum Developer Skills

Certified Scrum Developer courses focus on imparting the following Scrum-related skills:

• Agile project management skills

Understand the basic framework of an Agile process, its architecture, design, along with the core benefits of an efficient Agile-based software development life cycle.

• Test-driven Development (TDD)

An approach that has improved the speed and quality of software development in an agile environment. TDD is used for quick improvements in the application code after executing a specific test case for the functionality. Hands-on use of popular software tools that are used for implementing this approach is covered.

• Continuous integration (CI)

Continuous integration in Agile development environment involves the configuring of the CI systems for generating daily or hourly builds. In addition to source codes, CI also integrates execution of unit test cases and other artefacts.

• Code Refactoring

Code Refactoring is a process used in Agile methodology that can simplify the design of existing code without changing its functionality. Required skills include identify code smells and applying refactoring techniques to enter cleaner code.

• User stories

User stories is an Agile technique that helps you to write proper user stories and then break them down to manageable chunks of functionality. User stories are an effective technique of collaborating not only with other Scrum team members, but also with higher stakeholders in the overall project.

Most Scrum developer certification courses lasts for around 3-5 days, with the first part of the training devoted to the understanding of the Scrum framework and its working concepts. The second part of the training is usually devoted to hands-on training in Agile tools and methods that are commonly used in most Agile projects.

In addition to certification courses in Scrum development, advanced courses for becoming a certified ScrumMaster and Product Owner are also offered by professional training institutes.

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Conclusion 

A professional Scrum Developer course gives the trainees hands-on experience of being part of an effective Agile team using the hands-on training in TDD testing, refactoring, and acceptance tests. The certified developer not only understands the skills of the Scrum framework, but also realizes its importance in the efficient implementation of any software development process.