Scrum Roles & Responsibilities
Feb 6th 2014 (updated Apr 3rd 2023)
agilescrum
Here I've put together a simple table defining the responsibilities of the various Scrum roles as detailed by various Scrum literature. The intention behind this is to bring clarity to what each role is ultimately responsible for.
Note, that these are 'ultimate' responsibilities, and do not mean that they have to be carried out by the role, as there may be delegation.
PBI - Product Backlog Item
Key Roles and Responsibilities
| Responsibility | Scrum Master | Development Team | Product Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ensuring good economic decisions are made | X | ||
| Ensuring the value of the work is maximised | X | ||
| Ensuring PBIs are understood | X | ||
| Planning the sprint | X | ||
| Providing PBI effort estimates | X | ||
| Creating & defining acceptance criteria (before considering for a Sprint) | X | ||
| Verifying acceptance criteria are met (prior to review) | X | ||
| Collaborating with Stakeholders | X | ||
| Coaching the Scrum Team into Agile | X | ||
| Removing impediments to development | X | X | X |
| Ensuring Scrum values, principles and practices are used and improved | X | ||
| Ensuring that processes are kept to and continuously improved | X | ||
| Creating the potentially shippable feature/functionality | X | ||
| Running the daily scrum | X |
Scrum Master
- Coaches the Scrum Team into Agile
- Takes ownership of impediments that the Development Team cannot solve itself
- Ensures Scrum values, principles and practices are used and improved
- Ensures that processes are kept to and continuously improved
Development Team
- Plan the Sprint
- Provide effort estimates to PBIs
- Finalise the Sprint goal
- Remove their own impediments
- Create potentially shippable feature/functionality
- Run the Daily Scrum
Product Owner
- Ensures good economic decisions are being made
- Ensures that the value of the work being completed is maximised
- Ensures that the PBIs are understood by the Development Team
- Provides valuable input into planing the help the Development Team select a set of PBIs
- Sets the initial Sprint Goal
- Is responsible for the Product Backlog, and ensuring it is refined
- Defines acceptance criteria for PBIs (prior to it being considered for the Sprint)
- Verifying acceptance criteria are met (prior to the Sprint Review)
- Is continuously involved throughout the duration of the Sprint
- Helps to remove impediments to the Development Team
- Kenneth S. Rubin (2012). Essential Scrum. Addison-Wesley Professional.
- Schwaber, Ken, and Jeff Sutherland (2011), "The Scrum Guide". [Online] Available from: www.scrum.org [Accessed 01 January 2015]