Do you understand the implied contract (promises) between Members of the Scrum Team?

Last updated by Toby Churches [SSW] 4 months ago.See history

Working together as a team is hard. Especially with the distractions that are around as part of daily office life. You need all three partied to a Scrum team, the Product Owner, the Scrum Master, and the team, to work together to achieve the Sprint Goal.

From Scrum Alliance:

"Scrum defines three distinct roles that must work together as a Scrum team to produce a successful product. The Product Owner is responsible for understanding what stakeholders require, interpreting these requirements for the team, and providing clear prioritized direction. The team is composed of those people actively engaged in building the product. The team collectively and members individually are responsible for building the product according to the priorities and requirements provided by the Product Owner. The team is completely responsible for deciding how to achieve its goals and how to organize its work. Finally, the Scrum Master is responsible for the health of the process, reporting the progress of the team, and removing impediments to progress."

With these roles come a number of promises between the 3 parties, the Product Owner, the Scrum Master, and the team. These promises should be formalized so that everyone knows where they stand.

Role Promises
The Organization - the team that there are stakeholders (including subject matter experts) who will help when needed
- they will help the Scrum Master in the removal of impediments to the Scrum team’s progress
- the team that they will not change priorities or constraints in the middle of a Sprint without team’s consent
- that being on a Scrum team will not hurt the members’ careers
- not to divert team members to other work on a Scrum Day during a Sprint
Product Owner - to supply an initial Product Backlog
- to prioritize the Product Backlog when needed
- to be responsive to requests for feedback and clarification
- empowered “voice of the customer” will be provided to answer business domain questions promptly (minutes or hours, not days)
- to attend every Review, Retrospective
- not to change priorities or scope during a Sprint
- not to direct team members to do work not agreed and planned at the beginning of the Sprint
Scrum Master - to keep the team healthy by focusing on the removal of impediments, both internal and external
- to protect the team from external distractions
The Team - that its work will be transparent, that it will make decisions and solve problems as a group, and that no individual team member will be left behind
- to take prioritization and scope from the Product Owner on the team driving the team based on stakeholders interests
- to use the stakeholders’ time wisely, by focusing on questions that are relevant to the work being done now
- to do quality work the best way they know how within the constraints set forth by the organization
- to deliver demonstrable product at the end of every Sprint for reviewing and validation by the stakeholders
- to endeavor to become multi-skilled by sharing and pairing and not relying on experts on the team for specific functions
Team Member - to bring issues, problems, impediments and realities encountered to the team
- to be available and working with the team on every defined Scrum Day of a Sprint in which they committed and any required absences will be scheduled before the beginning of the Sprint
- to attend every Scrum, Review, Retrospective & Planning Meeting
- to refer any external request that will take more than 15 minutes of Scrum Day time to the Scrum Master
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