Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Chapter 5 Core Roles of Scrum - Coggle Diagram
Chapter 5 Core Roles of Scrum
The Scrum Product Owner
The role of the product owner is at the heart of the Scrum framework. A product owner is a doer and a visionary who paves the way for the product that meets the needs of the market.
The product owner is fully aware of both the development process and the customer. They collaborate with both parties and help them make precise decisions that bring the product to life. Specific qualities of a product owner are:
Visionary
The product owner has the ability to envision the final product and communicate this vision to the team and the customer.
This demands spending a considerable amount of time with the customers and understanding their needs and expectations well. After this, the product owner envisions an elegant and simple solution to resolve all these needs.
He or she also receives and analyzes feedback received from the users and the stakeholders. Therefore, the product owner must keep a close eye on the project, tracking the progress made so far, and calculating the progress expected.
One thing that the product owner needs to master is the ability to embrace change and to deal with it gracefully.
Negotiator and Communicator
Qualified and Available
Qualification for this role simply means that the person has full knowledge and is able to understand the market, the customers, and the team.
He or she also has to be passionate about delivering the proper user experience, able to manage a budget effectively, comfortable working with a self-organizing cross-sectional team, and has the ability to guide the team through steps of development for the project.
Decisive
The best product owners have remarkable instincts that address the sensitivities of their target customers and when faced with critical decisions, they are able to pick the right ones, especially those that have to do with pricing, designing, and positioning.
Doer
Educated
A product owner must be educated in the ways of the business and possess the necessary skills to do the job properly.
In addition, as a person who works directly with the development team, it is necessary for the owner to have a clear understanding of the development process and have a passion for working to create the most friendly experience for the users.
The Scrum Master
A Scrum Master’s primary duty is to ensure that all members of the team stay focused on their tasks and are unhindered.
The Scrum Master’s role lies between being a team leader and a management role, which makes defining their traits or qualities somewhat difficult.
In that regard, here are some characteristics the right Scrum Master ought to have:
A servant leader
The Scrum Master is not given charge of the team to command them with regards to what to do. Instead, they are meant to provide support to the team members by helping them recognize and solve impediments. It is not easy for an employee to transition to a Scrum Master, but a born leader will have the natural drive to help, enable, and encourage others, which is one of the critical necessities for a team.
Knowledge of the products, the market, and the domain
Relates well with the team and can influence them:
Relentlessly pursues excellence
Takes note of and acts on team conflict:
Occasionally allows the team to fail
Does not mind being disruptive
Knows how to develop a team
Principles over practices
Encourages self-ownership
Observant
Lead by example
An Enabler
Enabling is second nature to any good Scrum Master. The daily Scrum and other meetings become fun to attend because the team is assured of progressive thinking and ideas that will be well prepared and useful. In the end, the meetings become a source of thought stimulation and encouragement.
Averts impediments
A good Scrum Master will not only work on resolving current problems, but also works on preventing the rise of others in the future. With the experience garnered over the years, they should able to read the situation and predict the outcome, which gives them the opportunity to ward off issues even before they appear.
Able to relate with the Product Owner well
A Scrum Master works in partnership with the Product Owner, which makes it necessary for them to have an outstanding relationship. Although they have different responsibilities where the Product Owner incites and provokes the team into aggressive and creative production, the Scrum Master plays the role of protecting the team from exhaustion and fatigue. When each plays his role, the team will be challenged to excel in its activities, and at the same time is protected from exhaustion and burnout.
Is open about their experiences:
The Team
The team is made up of professional developers whose sole responsibility is to convert the action items listed on the Product Backlog into functional pieces of the final product. The 5 to 9 people size of the team is to make it manageable and to ensure that it brings together all the skills needed per project.
The Scrum Team bears responsibility for all activities taken towards the achievement of the sprint goals.
The Scrum Team has the duty of keeping itself organized; this is not the work of the Scrum Master.
Once the Team is committed to delivering certain results, it has the responsibility of fulfilling its promise, making sure to deliver quality results in the agreed time.
The Team liaises with the Scrum Master in deciding the order of priority of the items listed in the product backlog when coming up with a sprint backlog.
Members of the Team have the obligation of attending every project- related meeting of whichever nature, and to ensure that the agendas of the meetings are addressed properly.
The Team has to remain agile in their workstations and have to attend standups and any other events when called upon to do so.
The Stakeholders
Among the stakeholders, Scrum specifically puts emphasis on the role of the end-user.
This is because, for agile projects, the team has to ensure that each step they conduct has benefits and value for the end-user.
This causes the product owner to involve the end-user in almost every step so that the user can validate the claims made by the development team. The foremost goal of an agile project is to maximize the customer’s satisfaction.
Therefore, in Scrum, the roles of the stakeholders include:
Maintaining a healthy relationship with the product owner to learn all the details regarding the on-going project.
Communicating their concerns and wishes to the product owner, particularly in regard to the project duration and quality.
Be a source of regular input by answering the questions the product owner asks.
Help the product owner to effectively prioritize some tasks to ensure that the project goes on smoothly.
Continuously take and provide updates regarding any necessary changes to the plans.
Provide insight, inspiration, and motivation in the project development process.