Who is the Development Team

Introduction The Development Team is an interdisciplinary self organising group, who have all the skills needed to manage, develop, verify and validate a solution to the “User Stories” or “Epics” selected for the Sprint.
The Scrum Team is empowered by the organisation guided by the Scrum Master to organise their own work and set the scope of the Sprint during the Sprint Planning together with the Product Owner.
The team has no specific role for the members – every team member can and should be able to work on all aspect of implementing the User Stories. The Individual team members may have specialised skills and areas of focus, but accountability for the solution belongs to the team as a whole. Team size is typical 3-9 members.
What is the tasks of the Scrum Team The following high level tasks are performed by the development team:

Task Description
Sprint Planning On the first day of the Sprint the team establish an answer to these questions:

  • What User Stories can be implemented in the Sprint – create the Sprint Backlog?
  • Agree with the Product Owner on the definition of ‘Done’ for each User Story – ensures transparency!
  • What activities will be needed to implement the User Story – i.e. create a plan for the Sprint
Development The Development Team follow the Sprint Plan, performing the tasks scheduled in the plan.
The plan will only have the activities scheduled for a couple of days ahead. This schedule lead is maintained in the Daily Scrum making sure the team members always know which task to perform next if a task is finished ahead of schedule.
Daily Scrum Each team member prepare for the the Daily Scrum meeting by:

  • Being ready briefly to explain what was done yesterday that contribute to the creating of Done User Story, e.g. did they finish any of the activities in the Sprint Plan.
  • What is it the plan to do today – sign-up for tasks from the Sprint Plan and forecast for tasks for tomorrow.
  • Consider if there is any obstacles in the task planned for today – who can eventually help or support removing the obstacles or is there any activities missing in the plan.
Sprint Review The team prepare to demonstrate for the Product Owner and key stakeholders that the team has actually succeeded with delivering what was agreed, at the start of the Sprint.
This could include:

  • Live Demonstration of selected test cases – e.g. if usability is deemed critical for end-users or business.
  • Walk-through of documentations defined as part of ‘Done’ – e.g. required by authorities.
  • Walk-though of of the list of performed test cases.
  • Any thing else that can convince the Product Owner and key stakeholders that all User Stories are ‘Done’.
Sprint Retrospective During development the team has been observant for any improvement opportunity for the selected approach to the implementing the User Stories.
This could include:

  • Team work – did it work as it should or can something be improved.
  • Tools used for the implementation – can efficiency and effectiveness be improve by introducing a new tool?
  • Methods used for implementation – can efficiency and effectiveness be improve by changing or introducing a new method?

If the team conclude that there is an opportunity for improvement it create a User Story in the Release Backlog  and get a priority assigned to it.

Hints and References [1] The Definitive Guide to Scrum: The Rules of the Game; November 2017;
https://www.scrumguides.org/docs/scrumguide/v2017/2017-Scrum-Guide-US.pdf

Essential Scrum; A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process; Kenneth S. Rubin; Addison-Wesley; ISBN-13: 978-0-13-704329-3; ISBN-10: 0-13-704329-3.