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by: Christine Swartzendruber, Chief Technology Officer
Agile
helps teams deliver software products to market sooner by encouraging teams to
work in smaller increments. Scrum is the most widely adopted agile methodology.
Every aspect of scrum is designed to drive collaboration.
Meet The Scrum Team
·
Scrum Master
o Helps the team adhere to
the rules of the scrum framework.
o Removes any impediments
that arise
o Protects the team from
outside disruptions.
o Mentors the entire team on
scrum, including the product manager.
·
Product Owner
o Defines and shares the
overall vision for the product.
o Acts as the single source
of knowledge for the product.
·
Development Team
o Does the work to create
and deliver the product.
o Includes everyone even
testers and admins.
o Contains the mix of skills
necessary to deliver the product.
The
size of a scrum team is important. The recommended size is 3 to 9 members, with
the most common being 5 to 7 members. This is large enough to be
self-sufficient but not too large to coordinate.
There
is no official manager or leader on a scrum team. Those who are doing the work
know the best way to approach the work. All members are equal. While the Product
Manager should never be the task master of the team, he or she does have a
leadership role. Inside the team; guides team members in the creation and
fulfillment of goals. Outside the team; champions the product and the team to
the organization.
The
Product Owner will maintain the product backlog, a list of all items necessary
for the successful delivery of the product, and be responsible for prioritizing
items on that list.
3 Facets of Product Ownership
·
Product Management
o Define and communicate the
product vision.
o Define the release
strategy.
·
Business Analysis
o Identifying the
requirements for a successful product.
o Updating the product
backlog to reflect those requirements.
·
Product Management
o Managing the project
budget.
o Ensuring the project
timetable is on track.
It is
very important that the product manager has the authority to determine when
items will be worked on and completed. A product manager doesn't tell the team
how to do their work but keeping things on task and moving forward is a large
part of their responsibilities.
The Capacity of a Product Owner
·
Product ownership is a full time role.
·
Product managers don't work with more than one scrum team.
·
Only one person serves as the product manager for one team.
You can't have more than one.
The
most important thing to remember when choosing members for an agile team, is
that they must be able to communicate effectively with each other and make
important decisions that will bring their product to market faster, with less
bugs and with expected functionality.
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