Working with Agile Roles
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Introduction
Agile’s roles tend to be sourced from the Scrum framework. They consist of the following:
- Product OwnerÂ
- Scrum Master
- Team members
Product Owner
The Product Owner is accountable for maximising the value of the product resulting from the work of the agile team.
The Product Owner is also accountable for effective Product Backlog management, which includes:
- Developing and explicitly communicating the Product Goal (and vision)
- Creating and clearly communicating Product Backlog items
- Ordering Product Backlog items
- Ensuring that the Product Backlog is transparent, visible and understood
The Product Owner is responsible for:
- The budget
- When to release value
- Stakeholder engagement and communications management
- Change management, including understanding whether users and stakeholders are ready to use the work that the team has been producing (“business readiness”)
- Reporting to senior stakeholders, e.g. financial committees, boards, C-level executives on the impacts and outcomes of their product
Who should be the Product Owner?
The Product Owner needs the authority to make decisions about what the team should do and when. They are responsible for the budget and how much of the team’s time should be invested in producing product solutions and delivering services to the rest of the organisation.
BA as the Product Owner
Some organisations feel that Product Owners should write all the backlog items (“user stories”) and, because those activities are similar to those of a traditional Business Analyst (who writes requirements), a Business Analyst should become the Product Owner. In most organisations, though, requirements require approval. This results in a Business Analyst / Product Owner seeking sign-off of backlog items, producing delays in decision-making regarding what the team should focus on in any given Sprint.
This anti-pattern is called the Proxy Product Owner. This should be avoided.
Stakeholder as the Product Owner
Using the stakeholder as the Product Owner comes from the agile framework Extreme Programming (XP). This can work well, so long as:
- The stakeholder adheres to the rules of your agile framework.
- The stakeholder actually performs the roles and responsibilities of the Product Owner role and doesn’t delegate it to someone else.
- The stakeholder becomes a member of the agile team.
- The team doesn’t have multiple stakeholders, e.g. is producing outcomes for multiple stakeholders.Â
In the latter instance, the Product Owner tends to become a committee instead of a single person. Avoid this anti-pattern.
Characteristics of a great product Owner
- Is a team player (the role is an integral part of the agile team, not just an observer)
- Understands users and stakeholders
- Understands what users and stakeholders value
- Can make trade-offs in scope versus time and costs
- Can engage effectively with senior stakeholders
Scrum Master
The Scrum Master isn’t an “agile project manager”. They’re not responsible for making the team deliver. Their responsibility begins and ends with establishing Scrum (as defined in the Scrum Guide) and ensuring its effectiveness.
Who should be the Scrum Master?
While the Scrum Master is a leader and facilitator, they aren’t the team’s secretary. Many teams get their Scrum Master to book Sprint events, write reports, and manage the Scrum board.
This anti-pattern is called the Secretary and should be avoided.
Characteristics of a good Scrum Master
- Master facilitator – setting the stage and providing clear boundaries in which the team can collaborate
- Coach – coaching the individual with a focus on mindset and behaviour, the team in continuous improvement (which includes the Product Owner), and the organisation in truly collaborating with the agile team
- Conflict navigator – to address unproductive attitudes and dysfunctional behaviors
- Mentor – that transfers agile knowledge and experience to the team
- Teacher to ensure Scrum is understood and enacted.
Team Members (Developers)
Scrum calls the people who do the work “Developers”. This is because these people are the ones who develop the product (or service) by doing the work. Developers are self-managing, meaning that they work within the guardrails of Scrum, and from a single product backlog, but no one from outside of the team tells them how to do their work.
Developers are committed to creating a usable Increment each Sprint.
While the specific skills needed by the Developers are often broad and will vary with the domain of work, Developers are always accountable for:
- Creating a plan for the Sprint, the Sprint Backlog
- Instilling quality by adhering to a Definition of Done
- Adapting their plan each day toward the Sprint Goal
- Holding each other accountable as professionals
Characteristics of good team members
- Work together toward a common goal
- Don’t work in silos
- Don’t take on more work from the backlog once their own work finishes, but lends a hand to help others get their work to Done.
- Help everyone in the team keep to timeboxes
- Puts up their hand and asks for help when they get “stuck” and issues impede their delivery of work
