In a project, there are many roles that need to be played, such as a project manager, a team lead, project team members, project sponsors as well as the project steering committee. Traditionally, these roles are usually set based on technical expertise. For example, if a professional has some fundamental knowledge of how to manage project, he/she would be assigned to the project manager role.

This method of assigning roles based on technical expertise can be successful if we live in an environment that is constant. This past experience and technical expertise will be leveraged upon to manage a project based on best practices.

However, the business environment that we live in is extremely volatile. The volatility of ever changing government policies, regulations, technological advancements, product or service demand, media influence, and many more demand a new approach to the assigning of project management roles. Organizations have to shift their focus from the technical expertise of the employee to the end goal of the project.

The roles of organization that adopt the Scrum framework focuses on the end goal of the project. The Scrum framework calls for managing and organizing work based on what adds most value to your customer and your organization. These roles have direct influence on the realization of the value of the project. The Scrum core roles are accountable for the production of deliverables which meet the acceptance criteria in every sprint which in turn ensures success of the entire project.

The following are the three core roles in Scrum:-

1. The Product Owner who adds value by focusing on delivery of partially incremental product/service
2. The Development Team adds value by focusing on developing the partially incremental product/service
3. The Scrum Master adds value by ensuring the process is followed thoroughly throughout the project

The Product Owner

The product owner is regarded to be the one who has far-sightedness of the project and is accountable for accumulating the requirements and needs to understand the value of the project. By doing this, the product owner usually plays the voice of the customer.

The product owner is also responsible for dealing and listing the product backlog. He/she is also involved in the planning of the release. An efficient product owner is expected to possess technical knowledge, domain expertise and should be easily accessible to the development team.

The Scrum Master

The Scrum Master has his/her focus on the progress of the process and also is known to guide the scrum team.

The Scrum Master is responsible for planning the sprints and prioritizing the sprint backlog. The Scrum Master also helps in identifying and eliminating the obstacles that is currently hindering the performance of the team. Furthermore, he/she is involved in managing development process.

The Scrum Master is responsible for preparing the burn down chart and helps in maintaining purity of communication among one and all in the project. The Scrum Master enables the group to follow the workflow and ensures that the tasks in the sprints are completed on time. A Scrum Master is ideally considered to have a good balance of skills such as technical expertise, team player and a problem solver.

The Scrum Team

A Scrum team does not mean the typical development team. A scrum team has its own special capabilities.

Stated below are few features of a Scrum team:-

1. Cross-functional teams: The members in the team have different backgrounds and expertise. Example: Testers, developers, architects, analysts, programmers, system admins.
2. Self-organizing teams: the teams is fully autonomous and makes project based decisions on their own, as they know what tasks can or cannot be done to achieve the goal.
3. Backlog driven: work is done as per the backlog.

The responsibilities of the development team:-

• Achieve sprint goals
• To prepare self-made goals
• To organize their time

In order to visualize these distinct roles, let’s take the example of a restaurant. The waiter, who usually takes the order from the customer, plays the role of the Product Owner. The waiter then understands the customer’s requirements and will then communicate the same to the chef. The chef, who is the Development Team in this example, will cook the food according to the requirements. The restaurant manager, who ensures there is a smooth process between table to kitchen and removes and impediments his chef may have, plays the role of the Scrum Master.

In conclusion, assignment of project roles was traditionally based on technical expertise as there were minimal changes within projects. With the rapid changes of requirements, project roles have now evolved and are now assigned based on end result which helps add value to the customer as well as the organization. 

To learn more about Scrum Core Roles, join our Scrum Master Certification session. Click on this link to find out more.

Udhay Sharma a/l Rumesh Kumar,

Scrum Certified Trainer, Scrum Master Certified,

Scrum Product Owner Certified, Scrum Developer Certified,

Scrum enthusiast since 2017