Organization structure and definition of roles and
associated responsibilities are some of the areas where Scrum differs in a
major way from traditional project management methods.
Scrum roles fall into two broad categories:
1.
Core
Roles—Core roles are those roles which are mandatorily required for producing
the product of the project, are committed to the project, and ultimately are
responsible for the success of each Sprint of the project and of the project as
a whole.
2.
Non-core
Roles—Non-core roles are those roles which are not mandatorily required for the
Scrum project, and may include team members who are interested in the project,
have no formal role on the project team, may interface with the team, but may
not be responsible for the success of the project. The non-core roles should
also be taken into account in any Scrum project.
Here is a video on the differences between the
organization structures of Scrum and Traditional project management and
delivery methods:
In traditional project
management methods, the organization structure is hierarchical and authority
for all aspects of the project is delegated from higher level to lower (e.g.,
project sponsor delegates authority to project manager and the project manager
delegates authority to team members). Traditional project management methods
emphasize on individual accountability for project responsibilities rather than
group ownership or accountability. Any deviation from the delegated authority
is looked at as a sign of issues and may be escalated to the higher level in
the organization hierarchy. It is usually the project manager who is
responsible for successful completion of the project and he or she takes
decisions on various aspects of the project, including initiating, planning,
estimating, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. The following
diagram gives an overview of the Scrum roles:
The emphasis in Scrum is on self-organization and
self-motivation where the team assumes greater responsibility in making a
project successful. This also ensures that there is team buy-in and shared
ownership. This, in turn, results in team motivation leading to an optimization
of team efficiencies. The Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Scrum Team work
very closely with relevant Stakeholder(s) for refining requirements as they go
through the Develop Epic(s), Create Prioritized Product Backlog, and Create
User Stories processes. This ensures that there is no scope for isolated
planning in Scrum. Team experience and expertise in product development are
used to assess the inputs needed to plan, estimate and execute project work.
Collaboration among Scrum Core Team members ensures that the project is carried
out in an innovative and creative environment that is conducive to growth and
team harmony.
