1. Product Owner (PO)
The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product resulting from work of the Development Team. The Product Owner is the sole person responsible for managing the Product Backlog.
At SVPM, the Product Owner is typically one person. Depending on scheduling, one of the sponsors may support the PO by attending a meeting on their behalf.
During scrum events, the PO represent the desires of stakeholders in their decisions. This is visible in the content and ordering of the Product Backlog.
The Product Owner is the sole person responsible for managing the Product Backlog. Product Backlog management includes:
- Clearly expressing Product Backlog items
- Ordering the items in the Product Backlog to best achieve goals and missions
- Optimizing the value of the work the Development Team performs
- Ensuring that the Product Backlog is visible, transparent, and clear to all, and shows what
the Scrum Team will work on next - Ensuring the Development Team understands items in the Product Backlog to the level
needed.
2. Scrum Master (SM)
The Scrum Master is responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. Scrum Masters do this by helping everyone understand Scrum theory, practices, rules, and values. The Scrum Master is a servant-leader for the Scrum Team.
At SVPM, the Scrum Master serves the Product Owner by:
- Ensuring that goals, scope, and product domain are understood by everyone on the Scrum Team as well as possible
- Helping the Scrum Team understand the need for clear and concise Product Backlog items
- Planning scrum team transitions, typically 1-2 weeks before next Sprint cycle begins
At SVPM, the Scrum Master serves the Development Team by:
- Coaching the Development Team in self-organization and cross-functionality
- Helping the Development Team to create high-value products
- Removing impediments to the Development Team’s progress
- Facilitating all Scrum events, which includes:
- Scheduling Google Calendar invites
- Creating Zoom meeting links
- Starting & hosting all Zoom meetings
- Taking meeting minutes, and publishing them on Google Drive
3. Development Team (3-9 members)
The Development Team consists of professionals who do the work of delivering a potentially releasable Increment of “Done” product at the end of each Sprint. A “Done” increment is required at the Sprint Review. Only members of the Development Team create the Increment.
Development Teams are structured and empowered by the organization to organize and manage their own work. The resulting synergy optimizes the Development Team’s overall efficiency and effectiveness.
At SVPM, the Development Team have the following characteristics:
- Self-organizing. No one tells the Development Team how to turn Product Backlog into Increments of potentially releasable functionality
- Cross-functional, with all the skills as a team necessary to create a product Increment
- Scrum recognizes no titles for Development Team members, regardless of the work being performed by the person
- Scrum recognizes no sub-teams in the Development Team, regardless of domains that need to be addressed like web administration, marketing, or business analysis
- Individual Development Team members may have specialized skills and areas of focus, but accountability belongs to the Development Team as a whole
