The Scrum Guide – 2020
The fundamental unit of Scrum is a small team of people, a Scrum Team. The Scrum Team consists of one Scrum Master, one Product Owner, and Developers. Within a Scrum Team, there are no sub-teams or hierarchies. It is a cohesive unit of professionals focused on one objective at a time, the Product Goal.
Scrum Teams are cross-functional, meaning the members have all the skills necessary to create value each Sprint. They are also self-managing, meaning they internally decide who does what, when, and how.
The Scrum Team is small enough to remain nimble and large enough to complete significant work within a Sprint, typically 10 or fewer people. In general, we have found that smaller teams communicate better and are more productive. If Scrum Teams become too large, they should consider reorganizing into multiple cohesive Scrum Teams, each focused on the same product. Therefore, they should share the same Product Goal, Product Backlog, and Product Owner.
The Scrum Team is responsible for all product-related activities from stakeholder collaboration, verification, maintenance, operation, experimentation, research and development, and anything else that might be required. They are structured and empowered by the organization to manage their own work. Working in Sprints at a sustainable pace improves the Scrum Team’s focus and consistency.
The entire Scrum Team is accountable for creating a valuable, useful Increment every Sprint. Scrum defines three specific accountabilities within the Scrum Team: the Developers, the Product Owner, and the Scrum Master.
© 2020 Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland
Commentary
The Scrum Team consists of 3 roles:
People who are involved in the delivery process but not part of the Scrum Team are referred to as stakeholders. For instance, impacted power users, unit managers, and heads of departments could be all stakeholders.
Can someone have multiple roles?
This is not forbidden in Scrum but not practical either.
- If the Product Owner and the Scrum Master are the same person, it would cause a conflict of interest. In addition, this person would have too much power over the Developers which works against self-management.
- If the Product Owner or the Scrum Master are actively working on the Sprint Backlog as Developers, they would often find themselves in a situation where the time is not enough to perform well in both roles.
It is not to say a hybrid role would never work, every situation is different.
Can someone work in multiple Scrum Teams in parallel?
This is not forbidden in Scrum but not practical either. It is very difficult to commit to two Sprint Goals, follow up two Sprints, maintain work relationships with members of two teams, and so on.
If you miss other roles…
What about the specialists?
In the delivery process, we may expect to see more roles, for instance, developers, testers, and analysts. However, from Scrum’s point of view, specialization or seniority does not make a difference. Whoever works on the delivery of a product is a member of the team. On the other hand, teams should be cross-functional, thus able to deliver a product increment. As a consequence, teams should possess the necessary specialist and senior knowledge to fulfil their mission, but the details are up to the practitioners.
What about the project manager?
There is no place for a project manager in Scrum. At least, not as a member or manager of the team, and definitely not with a mandate to assign tasks to team members. However, even if Scrum teams work on products as opposed to projects, organization-wide project management is not in conflict with Scrum. For instance, allocating a budget for the Product Owner may still be the responsibility of a project manager.
The three different Scrum roles eliminate the conflict of interest that traditional project managers face. The Scrum framework assigns non-conflicting responsibilities to different roles corresponding to their expertise:
- The Developers of the self-managing Scrum Team can concentrate on delivering increments and are not under pressure from business and managers;
- The Product Owner can concentrate on the product and is not liable for the disciplined work of the Developers and not responsible for the process;
- the Scrum Master can concentrate on the health of the Scrum framework without taking responsibility for business and engineering decisions.
What about the functional managers?
Neither the Scrum Master nor the Product Owner is the functional manager of a Scrum Team and its members. Members of a Scrum Team can belong to the same or to different organizational departments. This makes no difference from Scrum’s point of view. While managers should not instruct Scrum Team members, they are still responsible for running their departments, beyond Scrum. These tasks may include, for instance, ensuring all skills and tools are at the disposal of the team. This is entirely up to the organization.
No more pigs and chickens
In the early versions of the Guide, a fable was included about a pig and a chicken running a food business together. The point was to illustrate the difference in the sacrifice made by fully and partially involved actors in a process (providing ham vs. egg). However, applying this terminology to coworkers was definitely against Scrum values, i.e. respect.
Key Takeaways
- A Scrum Team consists of one Scrum Master, one Product Owner and (some) Developers.
- A Scrum Developer is not an engineer. This is an umbrella term for team members other than the Scrum Master and the Product Owner.
- A Scrum Team consists of typically 10 or fewer people (note the word ‘typically’).
- Multiple teams working on the same product should share the same Product Goal, Product Backlog, and Product Owner.
External Content: Scrum.org’s video about the importance of psychological safety
As we can see, psychological safety is not only for the mental well-being of employees. It has a profound impact on transparency, openness, courage, and respect. Through these, it either unleashes or suppresses creativity, quality, efficiency and teamwork. The difference between living up to our potential or looking behind our backs paranoidly is not just a personal issue, it determines the success of the organization.
A word on the 2017 vs. 2020 edition: the Development Team is renamed to Developers. Having two teams has always been a source of confusion. It is great to have only one team from now on, however, ‘developer’ has also always been a source of confusion, too, that will be just more severe after this change. The team size has also changed and is now specified for the entire Scrum Team not just for the development team.
The Scrum Guide – 2017
The Scrum Team
The Scrum Team consists of a Product Owner, the Development Team, and a Scrum Master. Scrum Teams are self-organizing and cross-functional. Self-organizing teams choose how best to accomplish their work, rather than being directed by others outside the team. Cross-functional teams have all competencies needed to accomplish the work without depending on others not part of the team. The team model in Scrum is designed to optimize flexibility, creativity, and productivity. The Scrum Team has proven itself to be increasingly effective for all the earlier stated uses, and any complex work.
Scrum Teams deliver products iteratively and incrementally, maximizing opportunities for feedback. Incremental deliveries of “Done” product ensure a potentially useful version of working product is always available.
©2017 Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland.
Indeed, pigs and chickens were roles in the original Scrum Guide!
The Scrum Guide – 2010
Scrum Roles
The Scrum Team consists of the ScrumMaster, the Product Owner, and the Team. Scrum Team members are called “pigs.” The Product Owner is the “pig” of the Product Backlog. The Team is the “pig” of the Sprint work. The ScrumMaster is the “pig” of the Scrum process. Everyone else is a “chicken.” Chickens cannot tell “pigs” how to do their work. Chickens and pigs come from the story,
“A chicken and a pig are together when the chicken says, “Let’s start a restaurant!”
© 2008-2010 Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, All Rights Reserved
The pig thinks it over and says, “What would we call this restaurant?”
The chicken says, “Ham n’ Eggs!”
The pig says, “No thanks, I’d be committed, but you’d only be involved!”