Roles
Scrum Master
The Scrum Master acts as a facilitator and servant leader who ensures the team adheres to Scrum practices and principles. They are not a traditional team leader or project manager but rather guide and support the team. The Scrum Master helps remove obstacles that may impede the team’s progress, facilitates meetings, and ensures effective communication between team members and across other parts of the organization. They also protect the team from external interruptions to help maintain focus on the priorities of the current Sprint.
Product Owner
The Product Owner is the key stakeholder of a project and is primarily responsible for defining the vision of the product and managing the product backlog. This role involves understanding both the market and the customer needs, as well as the business objectives that the product serves. The Product Owner must prioritize the backlog to ensure that the team is working on tasks that deliver the most business value. They are the main communicator and link between stakeholders and the team, making sure there is clarity in the requirements and that the team’s deliverables meet business needs.
Other Roles
Team Manager
In some Scrum implementations, especially in larger organizations, there may be a Team Manager role, though it’s not part of the official Scrum Guide. This role often overlaps with the Scrum Master, but focuses more on administrative and personnel management aspects, such as resource allocation, career development, and performance evaluations. The Team Manager might also handle some of the more external aspects of project management that the Scrum Master does not cover.
Quality Assurance Manager
While not a traditional Scrum role, a Quality Assurance (QA) Manager in a Scrum context ensures that all products created by the development team meet the necessary standards before they are delivered to the customer. The QA Manager works closely with the team to develop testing strategies and processes. They are involved in writing test cases, conducting tests, and integrating continuous testing into the software development process. Their goal is to identify defects and ensure the product’s functionality before each release.
Toolsmith
A toolsmith provides technical support and expertise in selecting, configuring, and maintaining the software tools used by the team. This can include version control systems, continuous integration tools, testing frameworks, and development environments. The toolsmith role is crucial in a high-velocity Scrum team because efficient tooling is key to enabling rapid, reliable releases and automating repetitive tasks.
Chief Architect
The Chief Architect in a Scrum team is responsible for making high-level design choices and dictates technical standards, including software coding standards, tools, and platforms. They work on the architecture of the application to ensure it supports the product vision as defined by the Product Owner and that it can scale and adapt as requirements evolve. Their decisions need to reflect a balance between current business needs and future flexibility.
UX Designer
The UX Designer focuses on the user experience aspect of the product, ensuring that the software is usable, accessible, and enjoyable for users. They collaborate closely with the Product Owner, customers, and users to gather and analyze user needs and behavior. The UX Designer plays a critical role in translating these insights into design decisions that improve the overall user interaction with the final product.