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Does Scrum team reference in scrum guide means all three - Scrum Master, Product owner and Developers

Last post 08:40 pm October 23, 2024 by Daniel Wilhite
1 reply
MOHAMMAD NASIRUL HAQUE
03:22 pm October 23, 2024

As per scrum guide v2020 - 

Sprint Planning initiates the Sprint by laying out the work to be performed for the Sprint. This resulting plan is created by the collaborative work of the entire Scrum Team.

Does this mean Sprint plan is a responsibility of all three - Scrum Master, Product owner and Developers. 

Who is accountable and responsible for sprint plan? I could not find a reference of it in the guide or did I miss something.

Could someone please help verify the below and provide the missing answers (for who??) or please let me know where can I get answers for these?

Event                    Attendees                                      Participant                                    Accountable                                 Responsible

Sprint planning        NA                                            Scrum Team & 

 meeting                                                                 others whose advice needed                   who?                                                Who?

Sprint goal                                                                                                                    Developers                                  Scrum Team

Sprint backlog                                                                                                               Developers                                  Scrum Team

Sprint plan                                                                                                                    Developers                                  Scrum Team

Daily scrum            Scrum Team & others              Developers                                          Developers                                  Developers

Sprint Review          NA                                 Scrum Team & stakeholders                         Developers                                  Developers

Sprint retrospective      NA                                 Scrum Team                                           who??                                              who??

Note - Have mentioned about "Scrum team" being responsible for all events during Sprint planning based on the below from latest scrum guide -

Sprint Planning initiates the Sprint by laying out the work to be performed for the Sprint. This resulting plan is created by the collaborative work of the entire Scrum Team. 

The guide also mentions that developers are accountable for creating a sprint plan and backlog but it does not clearly mentions who is accountable for sprint goal. The guide just mentions the below regarding Sprint goal.

The Product Owner proposes how the product could increase its value and utility in the current Sprint. The whole Scrum Team then collaborates to define a Sprint Goal that communicates why the Sprint is valuable to stakeholders.

Can someone please help me with the above queries?

Daniel Wilhite
08:40 pm October 23, 2024

I encourage you to open the Scrum Guide and search the page for the words "accountable" and "responsible".  That should help you better understand the answer to your questions. 

The concept of the Scrum framework is that the entire team will collaborate as much as possible.  The Scrum Guide does not provide any job titles. It provides 3 sets of distinct accountabilities: Product Owner, Scrum Master and Developers.  Those accountabilities have distinct purposes that support pillars of the framework. 

Anywhere that you see "the team collaborates" indicates that it is a group decision and ownership.  The Scrum Team is anyone that is involved in the work to improve/maintain the Product for which the team is responsible.  The actual job titles of those individuals could vary widely and the 3 accountabilities could be accomplished with the same wide range of job descriptions.  As an example, the Product Owner accountabilities are often done by people with titles of Product Manager, Business Analyst or even Engineering Manager.  The Developer accountabilities are often done by people with titles of Software Engineer, Quality Assurance Engineer, Database Administrator, DevOps Engineer, and even Engineering Manager.  The accountabilities of the Scrum Master are often done by people with titles of Project Manager, Agile Coach, Program Manager, Product Manager, Software Engineer, or even Engineering Manager. 

Do not get too hung up on the specific titles.  But do be concerned that the listed accountabilities are being covered by the work that members of the Scrum Team are doing. 

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