The Scrum Squad
The Scrum team comprises Product Owner, Scrum Master and Developers. They are typically a team of ten or fewer. They work together towards the product goal.
Product Owner
The Product Owner (PO) is primarily responsible for the Product Backlog (creation and maintenance of all functional and non-functional requirements in the form of Epics, Features & User Stories) and the prioritization of the Product Backlog Items (PBI).
Product Owner ensures that the team understands the Product Backlog Items (PBI) clearly and all their questions are clarified.
The PO is responsible for maximizing the value of the Product (ROI).
Scrum Master
Scrum Master is the true leader serving the Scrum team and the larger organization.
It is the primary responsibility of the Scrum Master to ensure that the Scrum is adopted well by the team, and to serve as the Scrum Mentor/Coach at all times.
Scrum Master facilitates all the Scrum Ceremonies/Events and removes impediments towards delivering the committed product.
Developers
By developers, we mean the Product Developers – all skillsets needed to build and deliver a product successfully. Do not confuse it with the technical developer term – the term is not just limited to the people with the coding or configuring skillset.
Developers are responsible to deliver potentially shippable increments of the done product at the end of each Sprint.
They are not order-takers, but self-managing – they themselves choose ‘Who’, ‘How’ and ‘What’ to work on.
They are a cross-functional team, the members have all the skills necessary to create value each Sprint. The team has people with all the necessary skill sets to deliver a product – configuration, coding, architecture, design, testing, integration, etc.
Glossary (For terms used in this blog):
Epic
A very large user story that is eventually broken down into smaller stories; epics are often used as placeholders for new ideas. Epic cuts across various features of a product and may span across multiple releases.
For instance, an Epic can be ‘Optimizing Customer Service’.
Features
A large user story tied to an Epic (created in order to achieve a particular goal of the Epic), targeted at a specific product function. Usually fits in a release.
For instance, Case Management for Servicing Team, Self-Service for the Customers, Self-Service Knowledge Base can be the different features for the above mentioned Epic.
User Stories
Smaller pieces of functionality, directly mapping to the Feature, but small enough to fit in a sprint.
For instance, the ability for a service representative to create a case can be a user story tagged to the feature ‘Case Management for servicing team’.