--------------------------DE-TOUR--------------------------
In this chapter, the following are included for clarity and context. They are not part of The Scrum Guide:
Project Manager, Existing Project Managers, Managing people aspect of the Scrum Team, Business Manager
--------------------------DE-TOUR--------------------------
Along with empiricism Scrum aims to maximize the value of people working together. The vehicle of Scrum is the Scrum Team. It is a small team that has a clear focus on product ownership and has less complexity in the way it works.
To enable this ownership and reduced complexity, Scrum lays down two strict rules:
1. Reduce management-communication and role overhead by being self-organized: A Scrum Team plans, executes, and controls its own work without any one individual managing their work. The team contains only three roles, Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Developer. A team that manages its own work is called self-organizing.
2. Take full ownership by being cross-functional: A Scrum Team must have a minimum of three and maximum of nine Developers so that the team can have all skills necessary to create the product. A team that has all the required skills to build the product is called cross-functional.
-------------------Question- 8--------------------------
What are the roles in a Scrum Team? Select all that apply.
a) Project Manager
b) Programmer
c) Tester
d) Business Analyst
e) Architect
f) Operations Analyst
g) None of the above
-------Answer-------
There are only three roles in a Scrum Team. Correct answer is ‘g.’
-------------------Question- 8--------------------------
Fig. 5 shows the Development Team that is part of a Scrum Team. Just like the Scrum Team, the Development Team within the Scrum Team is also cross-functional and self-organized.
Fig. 5- Scrum- Development Team
Where is the manager for the project?
In a Scrum Team, there is no role other than the three previously mentioned roles. This means there is no Project Manager.
Building complex products is a knowledge game. The team involved in this game contains a knowledge-based workforce. If they face challenges in their work, they are knowledgeable enough to collaborate in innovative ways to address them.
However, this ground-level team needs to be structured and empowered to become self-organized and cross-functional.
One hindrance to self-organization is how project teams are traditionally managed. Usually, a team is assembled with individuals having some unique skill needed for the product development. These individuals are expected to wait for tasks to be assigned to them by a manager. Managers command these individuals with direction and control. Such leadership is known as command and control leadership.
Once their task is completed, the individuals wait for the next task to be assigned. Instead of self-organizing as a team to solve the challenges, they usually just limit their contribution at an individual level and execute what is asked.
Another pitfall with command and control leadership is that more often the project decision and directions will reflect the subjectivity of one commanding individual. But, in complex adaptive problems the changes and challenges are generally multi-dimensional. They require multi-dimensional analysis to comprehend and respond. For such multi-dimensional thinking and action, it is desirable to leverage the collective wisdom of all members of the team rather than just a commanding individual.
Therefore, there is no commanding and controlling manager within Scrum. The Development Team, which is the team on the ground that knows the reality, takes full ownership and self-organizes their work.
-------------------Question- 9--------------------------
In a traditional approach, <fill in> organizes and manages the team members’ work, and <fill in> is their management style.
a) Business Manager, People Centricity
b) Project Manager, Command and Control
c) The team, Self-Organization
-------Answer-------
Correct answer is ‘b.’
-------------------Question- 9--------------------------
If there is no Project Manager, how do we engage existing Project Managers?
In a traditional model, the Project Manager controls the project budget, the project team members, and the project tasks. In Scrum, these activities are distributed between the three Scrum roles.
Though the Project Manager role is eliminated, there are still management positions within Scrum. The Development Team collectively manages the project tasks and their own work. The Product Owner manages the business investment. The Scrum Master manages how Scrum is implemented.
As for the existing Project Manager, they can choose one of these management positions. However, they need to consciously choose the position with the understanding of the responsibilities involved. None of these management positions, such as Product Owner, Scrum Master, etc. involve managing people or unilaterally controlling the project plan or tasks. This will be further explained later in the book.
-------------------Question- 10--------------------------
In self-organized teams, the work is divided between individual team members. Each team member takes accountability for the progress of only their work.
a) True
b) False
-------Answer-------
In self-organized teams, the work is decomposed into work units. Individual team members take some work units. However, the entire team is accountable for the overall progress of reaching a common goal. Correct answer is ‘b.’
-------------------Question- 10--------------------------
Self-Organized Teams balance their self-empowerment to create value
In a self-organized team, all the team members plan their work together and track its progress against a common goal. They also identify and resolve challenges together. Without any management or direction from outside, they strive to balance flexibility, creativity, and productivity, so they can maximize the collective value of their work.
-------------------Question- 11--------------------------
In their journey to deliver products of the highest business value, what factors will enable the Scrum Team to balance creativity, flexibility, and productivity? Select all that apply.
a) Strong Team Management and Guidance by a team member identified as their leader
b) Having all the skills required to perform all their work without external help
c) A Performance Management System that rewards the super achievers of the team
d) Structuring the team such that it can self-organize its work against a common goal
-------Answer-------
If sufficient capabilities and empowerment are not present, the team cannot acquire flexibility nor it can command the creativity and productivity. Sufficient capabilities are ensured by having all the skills required for the job. Empowerment is ensured by the structure of self-organization. Correct answers are ‘b’ and ‘d.’
-------------------Question- 11--------------------------
Who manages the people aspects of the Scrum Team?
Every Scrum Team usually works within a larger organizational ecosystem. Though Scrum does not have management roles like Project Managers, there is a shared understanding among Scrum Practitioners about the important role “Managers of Organization” play. These managers set and manage larger strategies, define operational units, structure self-organized teams, and help to resolve organizational impediments to Agility.
For any personnel issues within the team’s influence, such as personality conflicts, the self-organized team itself will resolve them.
If the issue is outside their influence, such as human resource management functions of hiring, firing, compensation, and other legal aspects, they are handled by the appropriate human resource authority defined by the organization’s management.
-------------------Question- 12--------------------------
As a self-organized team, what can a Scrum Team manage? Select all that apply.
a) Managing their work to reach a common a goal
b) Managing their human-related aspects like leave, firing one of the team members, office dress code, etc.
c) Managing some other teams
d) Managing to support ad-hoc high-priority requirements from important executives
-------Answer-------
Self-organized teams are empowered to organize and manage their work. However, the team cannot self-manage the human resource related aspects. They also cannot work from a different set of requirements outside the Product Backlog. Correct answer is ‘a.’
-------------------Question- 12--------------------------
Since everyone is a Developer without specialization, can the team members pursue specializations anymore?
The members of the Development Team are called Developers irrespective of their primary skill set. They perform all the development work required to convert the business needs into a useable product feature.
For example, in a Development Team that builds software, each of the Developers could be a specialist in an individual area. But there is no special role assigned to them. As needed, the Developers can take up any activities such as user interface design, coding, testing, integrating, user manual creation, etc. to reach the goal. This arrangement is to reduce the role overhead and people working alone.
However, while the specialists should identify themselves as part of the team and learn additional skills to collectively deliver the work, there is no barrier to personally enhancing their special competencies and continuing to specialize.
Scrum – A new way of optimizing work and maximizing value
In waterfall, batching and big bang releases are common.
Accumulating developed product features over a long time period without releasing them for use is called batching. Usually they are released together as a batch in a big-sized release (big bang fashion) in one or two limited production releases.
By batching the features for a combined release, the waterfall plan treats all of these features as having the same value with no sensitivity to time.
The truth may be that different features within a batch may have different business values. So, it will make significant business sense to rank (order) the features by their business values and start delivering those more valuable features earlier.
By having the team develop features with the highest business value first, we earn more return on the team’s work. Early developed features can be released to production if it makes business sense.
There is an exclusive business role in the Scrum Team that is responsible for keeping the product features ordered. This role is the Product Owner.
The Product Owner feeds the list of ordered product features to the team. By ensuring that the team works on higher value features first, and constantly working with them to clarify the business questions, they can optimize the team’s work against value.
The Product Owner can choose to deliver the completed features to production often instead of batching them. By using the feedback obtained from the production usage and any market changes, the Product Owner can adjust the product features and their order to maximize the business value and control risk.
Fig. 6- Product Owner
We do have business managers even today. What is so different with the Product Owner?
The Product Owner does not resort to a traditional working style where they define all the product needs upfront based on today’s knowledge, and then toss a big requirements document over the “fence” to another team for development.
The Product Owner is much more than a traditional business manager in two aspects:
1. Continuous engagement with the team: The Product Owner respects the fact that the future cannot be predicted. They adopt empiricism to continually gain clarity and refine the product. They are on the constant look out for every opportunity to maximize the value of the product. They continually work with the team to help them understand the product needs and get the best value out of their work.
2. Ultimate authority of the team’s scope of work: The Product Owner leverages the dedicated Development Team to continually shape the product and uncover new knowledge. So, it is essential that the team should only be working on their product needs. The team should not be “switching the context” of their work due to any external authorities directing them to do “some other” work. So, the Product Owner is the ultimate authority on what the team should work on next. Even the CEO of the organization cannot request the team to work on something else. Anyone wanting to add something to the product must go through the Product Owner.
-------------------Question- 13--------------------------
Select all that apply. In Scrum, the Product Owner who plays the business role,
a) Hands over the Product Backlog to the Development Team and leaves the team alone. They only meet up again during final product delivery.
b) Freezes the Product Backlog and tries not to change it.
c) Works only with designated people in the Development Team.
d) Continuously collaborates with the Development Team, sometimes almost every day.
-------Answer-------
The Product Owner continuously evolves the ordered list of everything that may be needed in the product. This list is called the Product Backlog. Since this list evolves based on frequent new insights, it requires the Product Owner to continuously work with the team to communicate these changing needs and also to clarify questions about ongoing work. Correct answer is ‘d.’
-------------------Question- 13--------------------------
How is progress measured in Scrum? What are the key performance indicators (KPI)?
Scrum is founded on empiricism where the decisions about the next Sprint are made based on the insight obtained from the previous Sprint.
Every Sprint must create at least one piece of functionality that is useable by the intended users. Only then can it lead to inspection, usage, and useful feedback. So, the Increment which is a body of inspectable and usable outcome, is the only measure of progress in Scrum. There is no other metric of progress such as creation of any interim documents/artifacts, completion of phases, etc.
In addition a Scrum Team may internally use some measures such as Sprint Work Planned vs. Completed (Burn-down), Rate of Completion (Velocity), etc. However, these are only internal metrics used by the team to manage their work. They are not indicators of progress for stakeholders.
-------------------Question- 14--------------------------
In Scrum, Team Velocity is a good metric to track the progress of product development.
a) Yes
b) No
-------Answer-------
In Scrum, the real mark of progress is the delivery of a useable product Increment in every Sprint. Correct answer is ‘b.’
-------------------Question- 14--------------------------
Scrum – A new way of leading by coaching
In Scrum, empiricism and self-organization drive the product development approach. A leadership role is introduced to teach and coach people about these concepts and other elements of Scrum.
This leadership model is called servant leadership. The servant-leader does not take the lead in planning or controlling the development work. Instead, the servant-leader mentors the team to manage their work themselves within the Scrum framework.
-------------------Question- 15--------------------------
In Scrum, the ‘servant-leader’ is the new name for the traditional role called ‘Project Manager.’
a) True
b) False
-------Answer-------
The servant-leader of the self-organized team manages the implementation of principles like Self-Organization, Theory of Empiricism, etc. by teaching and coaching the team. The servant-leader is neither a Project Manager nor a People Manager. Correct answer is ‘b.’
-------------------Question- 15--------------------------
In Scrum, the person playing the servant-leader role is called the Scrum Master. The Scrum Master serves the team by coaching them to work together for a common goal irrespective of their individual skills. The Scrum Master mentors the team so that it becomes self-sufficient in their product development ownership. Such a self-sufficient team will frequently create a working product Increment, get early feedback in order to re-plan based on emerging insights, and solve the problems by their collective wisdom and collaboration.
Fig. 7- Scrum Team
-------------------Question- 16--------------------------
The Scrum Master is the manager of the Scrum Team.
a) True
b) False
-------Answer-------
In Scrum, there is no exclusive team manager role like a Project Manager. There are project management activities in Scrum, but they are distributed among the three Scrum roles. The Scrum Master manages Scrum deployment and coaches the team on Scrum. Correct answer is ‘b.’
-------------------Question- 16--------------------------
Is the Scrum Master only a teaching role?
Scrum Master is a management position in Scrum. The Scrum Master manages the Scrum Implementation. The Scrum Master coaches the Scrum Team to realize their potential. They are not just teachers or coaches. They are responsible for many other activities that are instrumental in transforming teams into value creators.
An example of a critical activity they play is when the Scrum Team runs into issues that prevent it from achieving their goal and if these issues are outside the team’s influence, the Scrum Master owns these impediments and resolves them. The Scrum Master also shields the team from unnecessary external interruptions, by helping those outside the Scrum Team understand which of their interactions with the Scrum Team are helpful and which aren’t. The Scrum Master sets the goals for the team to improve their way of working every Sprint.
The Scrum Master also helps the organization to adopt Scrum by helping everyone understand Scrum theory, practices, rules, and values.
If there is no detailed project plan, how will we know the details of the project and work execution?
Scrum uses three artifacts to track the information about the Product and the work. We have already discussed two of the artifacts, the Increment and the Product Backlog.
1. The Increment which is a body of inspectable and usable outcome, is the mark of the real progress, and it provides information for required stakeholders about the progress so far.
2. The Product Backlog is the product definition in terms of ordered product features. It is never frozen (closed for changes) and is a continuously evolving artifact because the Scrum Team and Product Owner in particular are always looking for changes and opportunities to maximize the value of the product. Using the ordered features, one can understand what the team will work on in the future.
3. The Sprint Backlog is a temporary artifact created for each Sprint. It contains the subset of the Product Backlog Items chosen to be delivered in the upcoming Sprint, the plan of how to deliver them, and at least one improvement required in the team’s way of working. It is the plan maintained by the team about what tasks should be performed within the current Sprint.
Fig. 8- Scrum artifacts
-------------------Question- 17--------------------------
A Scrum Team must produce the following artifacts. Select all that apply.
a) Project Plan
b) Product Backlog
c) Design Document
d) Sprint Backlog
e) Test Case Specifications
f) Project Status Report
g) Increment
-------Answer-------
A Scrum Team produces and maintains artifacts that help them to plan their work, track their progress, and share information visibly to required stakeholders. In that respect, Scrum mandates only three artifacts. Notice that the Increment is not a document but a body of inspectable and usable working product Increment. Correct answers are ‘b,’ ‘d,’ and ‘g.’
Other artifacts or documents are optional and can be chosen by the team if they add value to their work or final product.
-------------------Question- 17--------------------------
Summary
• Traditional command and control leadership blocks the team's bottom-up intelligence. Complex product building is a knowledge (not physical labor) driven work where the people closer to the work often have more knowledge and local information about the work than their bosses. So it is important for the bosses (managers) to empower their ground-level team members to collectively decide (using the team intelligence) how to perform and troubleshoot the work without any external direction.
• Scrum facilitates team intelligence by building a small cross-functional team that self-organizes its work.
• Cross-functional means having all competencies needed to accomplish the work without depending on others not on the team.
• Self-organizing means empowerment to choose how best to accomplish their work rather than being directed by others outside the team.
• The Scrum Team consists of a Product Owner, the Development Team, and a Scrum Master.
• The Development Team builds the Increment.
• Individual Development Team members may have specialized skills, but everyone’s title is Developer.
• Individual Development Team members may have areas of focus, but accountability for the development ownership belongs to the entire Development Team.
• The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product and the work of the Development Team.
• The Scrum Master is responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. Scrum Masters do this by helping everyone understand Scrum theory, practices, rules, and values.
• The Scrum Master is a servant-leader for the Scrum Team. The Scrum Master helps those outside the Scrum Team understand which of their interactions with the Scrum Team are helpful and which aren’t. The Scrum Master helps everyone change these interactions to maximize the value created by the Scrum Team.
• The team model in Scrum is designed to optimize flexibility, creativity, and productivity.
• The Scrum Team uses three artifacts that are specifically designed to maximize transparency of key information about the product and the work so that everybody has the same understanding.
