Building A Team: Defining the agile team roles

Defining roles in agile teams An important part of project management in a agile environment is building a team. While team building may seem simple, it deal more than just gathering people. There is a whole process in agile for this. By understand what agile is and how it is applied in building a team, this can be crucial for the success of a project. The Scrum framework defines the agile team roles into three formal roles known as the product owner, the developers, and the ScrumMaster. Reviewing these three roles will allow for a better understand on how to build a team.

The role of the ScrumMaster in an agile team is very practical. While a traditional project manager will control how the team delivers a product, the ScrumMaster only fosters the team by coaching and training them. As the ScrumMaster who has mastery the Scrum framework, they understand the importance for a team to be self-organized. Through restraint, the ScrumMaster can focus their time on removing obstacles and ensure a great working environment for the team. A ScrumMaster who is capable of fulfilling their role will provide the team with greater self-organization.

The role of the product owner is one of the most important on the agile team. They are the powerhouse because they represent the customer. Their direct communication with the customer allows them to have a final say in what gets done. As the product owner, one of their main roles is to maintain a product backlog which is used for prioritizing work. The product backlog contains all the features that the customer wants in the final product. The product owner must deliver the product in a way that satisfies everyone.

The developers role in an agile team is the most versatile out of the three formal roles. Developers are the core of projects as they are the true knowledge. They work on delivering the product to the customer. Since agile teams are cross-functional, developers are not limited to just software coders. The developers can include graphic designers, software test, and even database specialist. Although they are group together under developers, each are responsible to help produce when able. Developers are consider to be self-organized, and have a good mix of skills to perform task of others.

Work Cited

"Agile at Work: Building Your Agile Team." Lynda.com - from LinkedIn, www.lynda.com/Business-Skills-tutorials/Welcome/175073/379413-4.html. Accessed 1 Nov. 2017.

Image provided by

http://milindageorge.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/a468-f1-scrum-team2.png