The Ideal Team for Agile Development
Agile can be used for any type of product delivery such as software development, creation of marketing campaigns, food processing, etc. However, Agile is mainly associated with Software development. Thus our focus will be on software development, where I spent the majority of my career establishing and running agile teams.
The majority of the content on Scrum addresses the core team, which includes, the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Dev team. This is normally done as a high-level description. However, I want to focus on how these core roles are filled within the Software Development.
Scrum Master
Typically for companies transiting into Agile, the Project Manager (PM) takes on the role of Scrum Master. The core function of the PM will be to act as a servant leader; removing roadblocks for the team and setting up an environment in which they can be effective. The Scrum Master will also be responsible for maintaining that environment.
Product Owner
Many will say that a Business Analyst already plays the role of a Product Owner (PO). This may be true when it comes to capturing requirements. However, in the case of a PO, there is constant interaction with the stakeholders as required. The PO serves as the voice of the customer and translating those requirements into User Stories for the Dev team. Check out my articles 5 Letters for creating better User Story and Quick and Easy Elicitation and Analysis Techniques to improve on the skillsets of a Product Owner.
Dev Team
The Dev team is the heart of any Agile Project. This is because the individuals that make up the Dev team own the delivery of the product or solution being created. Therefore, it is vital for an organization to adequately staff the Dev team. These are the core roles required for Software Development:
- Software Engineer (SE) (2–3 individuals)
- QA Engineer (QA)
- UX Engineer
- Senior Software Engineer (optional)
Having these roles doesn’t mean you are looking to compose a team of specialists. On a project that scales across months, we try to allow the team to rotate between QA and SE; therefore supporting a culture of knowledge sharing. Furthermore, Software Engineer can be decomposed to Front-end Developers, Back-end, Database Admin, etc. It is typical to have a team start out with a bunch of specialists but it’s up to the firm to allow for knowledge transfer among the teams within an Agile project.
Now let’s look at the External Players.
SME
When talking about Subject Matter Experts, we’re usually talking about an experienced Business or Tech individual whom the Scrum team engages for answers. A typical SME can be described as an individual or group that possesses knowledge the team needs to create and deliver the product.
Examples:
- UX Engineer
- Technical Architect
- Content Strategist
- Specialist within a specific domain
The SME is not a part of the Scrum team and therefore is not held responsible nor accountable for any work they do for the team.
Business Owner
This is typically the sponsor of the project. However, the individual or group will not necessarily be the user of the product that is being delivered. However, the overall value to the customer (users) will create some secondary value in the form of increasing business efficiency, sales, etc for the Business Owner. It is the duty of the Scrum Master and Product Owner to set up a proper cadence to give updates and reports based on the progress.
Stakeholders
The stakeholders are the key to any Agile engagement. Why this is so? Because they determine ‘value’. Agile focuses mainly on delivering value over project scope. Based on the dictionary definition, value is anything that has worth to an individual. Therefore, it is key for the Stakeholders to keep in constant communication with the team to ensure that the most valuable requirements are met.
