Scrum - Roles

Product owner: The Product owner represents the voice of the customer and ensures that the Scrum Team works with the right things from a business perspective. The Product Owner administers a Product Backlog – a current to-do list where all the specifications for a product are listed according to how profitable they are deemed to be. The document is visible to the entire organization so that everyone is aware of what to expect in future releases of the product. The Product Owner is often a customer, but can also be part of the internal organization. The task requires comprehensive knowledge about engineering, marketing and business processes. The Product Owner writes User Stories, prioritizes them, and then places them in the Product Backlog.

ScrumMaster: Scrum is facilitated by a ScrumMaster, whose primary job is to remove impediments to the ability of the team to deliver the sprint goal. The ScrumMaster is not the leader of the team (as they are self-organizing) but acts as a buffer between the team and any distracting influences. The ScrumMaster ensures that the Scrum process is used as intended. The ScrumMaster is the enforcer of rules. The Scrum Master meets with the team every day in brief meetings, Daily Scrums. When someone outside the project has an important issue to discuss with the team, the Scrum Master tries to ensure that the designers are disturbed as little as possible in their work.
The Scrum Master always adopts a hereand- now perspective to the work. The focus is always on providing the team with the best possible circumstances for realizing the goals fixed for the Sprint. After each Sprint, the Scrum Master holds an Evaluation Meeting with the Scrum team – a Sprint Retrospective – during which experiences and conclusions are reviewed.

Team: The team has the responsibility to deliver the product. A small team of 5-9 people with cross-functional skills to do the actual work (designer, developer etc.). Team performs the actual work of problem solvers and designers. The team normally consists of 5-9 people – a group size that experience and research has shown to be best for this type of work. T he team members decide how the work is arranged and how assignments are distributed. There are no set project roles – everyone should be able to swap tasks with another member. Naturally, this does not prevent individual members from being experts in a field.

Next: Scrum process