What is a Scrum Team?
What is a Scrum Team? Is it like a rugby team where everyone works together to move the ball? Or is it more like a golf team where we add up the scores of all the individual members at the end? Find out in this Vlog!
The fundamental unit of Scrum is a small team of people, a Scrum Team. The Scrum Team consists of one Product Owner, one Scrum Master and Developers. Within a Scrum Team there are no sub teams or hierarchies at all. It’s a cohesive unit of professionals focused on one objective at a time, the Product Goal.
A few things to note, Scrum Teams are cross functional meaning they have all the skills necessary to generate value every single Sprint. They are also self managing, meaning internally they decide who does what, when and how. We do not have external management on a Scrum Team.
The Scrum Team is small enough to remain nimble but large enough to be able to complete significant work within a Sprint, typically fewer than 10 people. In general, we have found that smaller teams communicate better and are far more productive. If Scrum teams become too large, they should consider reorganizing themselves into multiple cohesive Scrum teams all focused on the same product. Together, they should share the same Product Goal, Product Backlog, and Product Owner.
The Scrum Team is responsible for all product related activities that happen within a Sprint. Including: stakeholder collaboration, verification, maintenance, operation, experimentation, research and development, and anything else that might be required. They are structured and empowered by their organization to manage their own work. Working in sprints at a sustainable pace helps the Scrum Team focus and creates consistency. The entire Scrum Team is responsible for creating a valuable and useful Increment each and every Sprint.
The value is chosen by the Product Owner. And building useful increments, well that’s on the Developers. Scrum defines three accountabilities within a Scrum Team. You’ve got the Product Owner, the Scrum Master and the Developers. Each of which we’ll be discussing in our other Intro to Scrum videos.
If all of this information about Scrum is interesting to you and you’d like to learn more, please join us in one of our Applying Professional Scrum courses, Professional Scrum Master courses, or Professional Product Owner courses. If you have any other questions, feel free to contact us.
