Scrum 101: Distinct Roles

  Scrum   ProjectsAtWork  

A well-functioning Scrum project requires three distinct roles, separate but equal: the Product Owner oversees what is being delivered on behalf of the customer; the Scrum team controls how they work; and the Scrum Master facilitates and acts as keeper of the process on behalf of the organization.

Traditionally, Scrum has been very prescriptive and well defined in terms of roles. There is the Product Owner, the Scrum Team, and the Scrum Master. These three “separate, but equal” entities, like the branches of the United States government, provide an inherent set of checks and balances on the project. 

The Product Owner is the representative and proxy of the Customer. The customer is the person or group or groups for whom the product is being created.  They may be external to the organization or internal.  They may be “business” customers or IT.  The bottom line is that the Product Owner must be someone who is empowered to make decisions on behalf of the customer — be it, choosing priorities for stories, accepting completion of deliverables, adding new features, triaging defects, setting overall product vision, and generally ensuring that the customer whom they represent is happy.

Notice, I wrote someone. Yes, the Product Owner needs to be an individual, not a group of people. Consensus decisions are nice in theory; however, research has shown that consensus decisions…

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