Scrum's Three Roles

Scrum has three roles: product owner, ScrumMaster, and team.

Product Owner

 

  • The product owner decides what will be built and in which order
  • Defines the features of the product or desired outcomes of the project
  • Chooses release date and content
  • >Ensures profitability (ROI)
  • Prioritizes features/outcomes according to market value
  • Adjusts features/outcomes and priority as needed
  • Accepts or rejects work results
  • Facilitates scrum planning ceremony

ScrumMaster

 

The ScrumMaster is a facilitative team leader who ensures that the team adheres to its chosen process and removes blocking issues.

  • Ensures that the team is fully functional and productive
  • Enables close cooperation across all roles and functions
  • Removes barriers
  • Shields the team from external interferences
  • Ensures that the process is followed, including issuing invitations to daily scrums, sprint reviews, and sprint planning
  • Facilitates the daily scrums

The Team:

  • Is cross-functional
  • Is right-sized (the ideal size is seven -- plus/minus two -- members)
  • Selects the sprint goal and specifies work results
  • Has the right to do everything within the boundaries of the project guidelines to reach the sprint goal
  • Organizes itself and its work
  • Demos work results to the product owner and any other interested parties.

Read an in-depth discussion about the three Scrum ceremonies.

The ScrumMaster has three primary responsibilities in addition to leading the daily scrums:

  1. The ScrumMaster needs to know what tasks have been completed, what tasks have started, any new tasks that have been discovered, and any estimates that may have changed. This makes it possible to update the burndown chart, an artifact that shows the cumulative work remaining day by day. The ScrumMaster must also look carefully at the number of open tasks in progress. Work in progress needs to be minimized to achieve maximum productivity.
  2. The ScrumMaster needs to raise awareness of dependencies and blocks that are impediments to the sprint. These issues need to be prioritized and tracked. A remediation plan needs to be implemented for impediments in priority order. Some can be resolved with the team, some can be resolved across teams, and others will need management involvement as they may be company issues that block all teams from achieving their production capacity. For example, a telecom company recently implemented Scrum and found eighteen items on their impediment list, only two of which were directly related to Scrum teams. The others were company issues that needed management attention.
  3. Last but not least, the ScrumMaster may notice personal problems or conflicts within the Scrum team that need resolution. These need to be clarified by the ScrumMaster and be resolved by dialogue within the team. Sometimes, the ScrumMaster may need help from management or human resources in order to resolve these issues. Certified ScrumMaster James Coplien developed over 200 case studies of notable projects while working at ATT Bell Labs. He reports that over 50% of productivity losses were caused by personnel issues. The ScrumMaster must pay attention to them to ensure the team is fully functional and productive.