Scrum Foundations Course – Scrum Roles

Scrum Roles

Scrum defines three roles within the Scrum Team. The Product Owner, The Development Team, and the ScrumMaster.

The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product and the work of the Development Team. One of the primary ways the Product Owner manages this work is through the Product Backlog.

The Product Owner is accountable for the order of the items in the Product Backlog, for ensuring that the items are clearly understood, and, that the Product Backlog is transparent to the Scrum Team and other stakeholders in the organization.

The Product Owner can choose whether to manage the Product Backlog on their own, or to involve the Development Team in the work. However, the Product Owner remains accountable.

The Development Team is responsible for building the actual product Increment. In this work, the Development Team is cross-functional and self-organizing, and while individuals often have specialized skills or areas of focus, accountability belongs to the team as a whole.

Development Teams tend to have between three and nine team members. Smaller than three may result in a skill gap that makes it difficult to deliver potentially releasable Increments during a Sprint. Larger than nine results in a level of complexity that makes coordination, self-organization and
empirical management difficult.

The ScrumMaster is responsible for ensuring that Scrum is understood and used skillfully by the Scrum Team. ScrumMasters do this by acting as a guide to the organization on Scrum theory, practices, and rules.

The ScrumMaster is often described as a “Servant Leader” role. This description means that the ScrumMaster leads by helping, rather than coercing. It can also be viewed as a role that serves through modeling an Agile mindset and skillful use of the Scrum framework. The ScrumMaster
ensures that the Product Owner, Development Team, and organization as a whole understand how Scrum can be used to help them accomplish and align their goals.