The key document that sets up the team is the Charter. This includes:
- Project Objectives – what the sponsors and/or customers expect from this project
- Stakeholders – who “has a stake” from sponsors to customers and why. Includes technical, security, business, and operational stakeholders
- Constraints – what must the project also do or do not in accomplishing the objective, such as standards, interfaces, and dependencies
- Risks – what are major risks (internal and external), this includes business, technical, political, social, environmental
- Definition of Done – the agreement among stakeholders of how work is closed by the Product Owner and supporting stakeholders
Once the Team Charter is in-place, the team should assemble based on the skills needed to do the work:
- Product Owner – person responsible for managing the Product Backlog; can only be one person;
- Scrum Master – person responsible for facilitating and keeping the team on track; leads Sprint Planning and Retrospectives
- Development Team Member – person on the team who takes responsibility for the team’s success in completing the Sprint objectives
These are the general types of team members on a Scrum Team, however, we know that many times we need variations based on our organization. The following are typical variations
Product Owners variations
- Types
- Business Representative – from the business line using the product, or subject matter expert (SME) for customer
- Technical Expert – from the systems engineering or technology group of the customer, has experience with building for business lines
- Sponsor – the executive, director, or product manager for a business line (internal or external); focuses on marketing and feature analysis
- Business Owner – the owner of the business selling the product; often a combination of other types of representatives
- Level of Availability
- Dedicated – always on the team and available to the team; focusing on the backlog refinement whenever not supporting other team members
- On-Call – available when needed at all times; however, may have limited time outside of team support for backlog refinement (e.g. other duties)
- Matrixed – works on multiple products or projects, balancing time based on their own direction or the direction of departmental goals
- Minimal – available only for Sprint ceremonies and minimal other times
- Absent – available with long lead times for set consultation hours; cannot predict if/when they will be avialable
Scrum Master variations
- Types of facilitation
- Facilitator – facilitates planning meetings, daily scrums, coordination with stakeholders (requirements, etc.), and retrospectives
- Project Manager – works as facilitator, as well as managing human resources; and is responsible for reporting and project success
- Junior Project Manager – works as facilitator and is responsible for reporting and project success for the Scrum team
- Business Analyst – works as facilitator and also provides supports for Product Owner and Development Team with requirements elaboration
- Types of Availability
- Dedicated – soles works on the Scrum team
- Split – works across multiple Scrum teams (can be the same or different projects or product lines)
- Rotating Team Member – can be a rotating member of the Development Team who acts as the Scrum Master for a Sprint
- Matrixed – can be part of a department with responsibilities to the department, Program, Program Management Office, etc.
- Minimal / Absent – can be only available for running ceremonies and on-call for other facilitation
Development Team Member variations
- Types of representation
- Generalizing Specialist – a team member that can perform any role as needed, but is trained in a certain skill set (usually development)
- Developer (Hard/Software) – a technical team member who focuses primarily on building the product to specifications
- Business Analyst / Tester – an analyst who defines and checks the work being developed by the team meets the Product Owner’s intent
- Technical Writer – an analyst who provides support for other team members in capturing notes, metadata, and communicating work
- Architect – an experienced team member in a technical or business domains that serves as subject matter expert (SME)
- Support Team – a team member that provides enabling technology, such as work tracking software, builds, deployments, machining, etc.
- Types of Availability
- Dedicated – soles works on the Scrum team
- Split – works across multiple Scrum teams (can be the same or different projects or product lines)
- Matrixed – can be part of a department with responsibilities to the department, other projects or product lines, or Centers of Excellence
- On-Call – is available as needed, when needed by the team to provide surge support or expert guidance
- Absent – available with long lead times for set consultation hours; cannot predict if/when they will be available
There are many advantages to having fully dedicated team members. Most often the objections for fully dedicating team members arise when considering the Product Owner and the Scrum Master. It appears as if these team members have a lot of “downtime” during the actual Spring Execution phase. This is hardly the case:
- Product Owners need to use time between ceremonies to liaison with Stakeholders
- Product Owners need to research market changes (Political, Environmental, Social, Technological) to validate product features
- Product Owners need to work with team members and provide quick feedback to keep the Development Team running as fast as possible
- Scrum Masters should to facilitate meetings, especially with stakeholders – this can take a long time to research and prepare!
- Scrum Masters should to help guide requirements, development, and testing based on best practices
- Scrum Masters should to help escalate issues outside the team; and address real-world obstacles that get in the team’s way
- Scrum Masters should always be analyzing the data of the team’s performance to identify continuous improvement opportunities
- Scrum Master is often having to “prep” the stakeholders and retrain where necessary the Product Owner and Development Team
How does this compare with your organization? Do you have “professional facilitators” who can ensure productive meetings? What about dedicated product owners to answer questions and make calls so development keeps on-track?
Consider the difference an approach like this might make, and the challenges in implementing it.