An essential aspect of the Scrum framework is the Scrum
Team. The Scrum Team is a group or team of people who are
responsible for understanding the business requirements specified by the
Product Owner, estimating User Stories, and final creation of the project
Deliverables. Scrum believes that Scrum Team members are self-motivated and
seek to accept greater responsibility. So, they deliver much greater value when
self-organized.
Self-organization as an essential principle in Scrum leads to
the following:
·
Team buy-in and shared ownership
·
Motivation, which leads to an enhanced
performance level of the team
·
Innovative and creative environment conducive to
growth
Self-organization does not mean that team members are
allowed to act in any manner that they want to. It just means that once the
Product Vision is defined in the Create
Project Vision process, the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Scrum Team get
identified. Also the Scrum Core Team itself works very closely with relevant
Stakeholder(s) for refining requirements better as they go through the Develop Epic(s) and Create User Stories process. Team expertise is used to assess the
inputs needed to execute the planned work of the project. This judgment and
expertise are applied to all technical and management aspects of the project
during the Create Deliverables
process.
Here is a video on self-organization in Scrum: http://www.scrumstudy.com/watch.asp?vid=447
Although prioritization is primarily done by the Product
Owner who represents the Voice of Customer, the self-organized Scrum Team is
involved in task breakdown and estimation during the Create Tasks and Estimate
Tasks processes. During these processes, each team member is responsible
for determining what work he or she will be doing. During the execution of a
Sprint, if team members need any help with completing their tasks, Scrum
addresses this through the regular interaction mandatory with the Daily Standup
Meetings. The Scrum Team itself interacts with other teams through the Scrum of
Scrums (SoS) Meetings and can look for additional guidance as required from the
Scrum Guidance Body.
Finally, the Scrum Team and Scrum
Master work closely to demonstrate the product increment created during the
Sprint in the Demonstrate and Validate
Sprint process where properly completed deliverables are accepted. Since
the Deliverables are potentially shippable, (and the Prioritized Product
Backlog is prioritized by User Stories in the order of value created by them),
the Product Owner and the customer can clearly visualize and articulate the
value being created after every Sprint; and Scrum Teams in turn have the
satisfaction of seeing their hard work being accepted by the customer and other
stakeholders.
