How do traditional Project roles change in Agile (Scrum)?

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Rachael Wilterdink > Project Management > PMBOK > How do traditional Project roles change in Agile (Scrum)?

Scrum Roles

In Scrum, as of the updated 2020 Scrum Guide, there are only three recognized roles:

  1. Product Owner
  2. Scrum Master
  3. Developers (formerly the Development Team)

Now, let’s look at the responsibilities of each of these roles:

Product Owner

The Product Owner role on a Scrum Team is the most critical, and the most difficult of the three Scrum roles. The Product Owner is responsible for creating a Product Goal and Vision, communicating and collaborating with stakeholders, making product decisions, and maximizing value delivery. Product Owners:

Picture of a woman representing an agile Product Owner and her responsibilities in this Scrum role
  • Establish and promote product vision
    • Is aware of the industry and markets
    • Create a Product Roadmap / Release Plan
    • Identify and manage risks
  • Collaborate with all impacted stakeholders
    • Other business stakeholders
    • Technical stakeholders
    • Developers
    • Scrum Master
  • Make decisions that impact the product
    • Choose when to release (or not)
    • Remove business impediments
  • Monitor value delivered vs. budget spend
    • Maximize Return on Investment (ROI)
    • Obtain product funding
  • Ensure the delivery of value
    • Order the Product Backlog
    • Ensure clear Acceptance Criteria are provided

Scrum Master

Scrum Masters are leaders that serve the Scrum Team. A Scrum Master will teach, train, coach, and help the Scrum Team however and whenever necessary. The Scrum Master is NOT a Project Manager, though some of those responsibilities may fall to a Scrum Master. In Scrum, the Scrum Master is responsible to:

Image of a business woman next to a board that says to be a leader, not a boss, representing the servant leadership a Scrum Master exhibits
  • Ensure Scrum theory, values, and practices are being followed
    • Train and coach the Scrum Team and business stakeholders
    • Ensure that timeboxes are being followed
    • Make sure that Scrum events are not skipped
  • Serve the Developers
    • Coach developers to be self-managed and self-directed (formerly self-organized)
    • Remove impediments when developers can’t solve them on their own
    • Improve engineering practices
    • Facilitate, schedule, and keep records as needed or requested
  • Serve the Product Owner
    • Ensure the Product Backlog is kept “in shape” (regularly refined)
    • Assist Product Owner in communicating the product goal and vision
    • Help maximize value by coaching the Product Owner in prioritizing the Product Backlog
    • Coordinate release planning with the Product Owner
  • Serve the organization
    • Help spread Scrum
    • Initiate change that helps team productivity
    • Collaborate and coordinate with other Scrum Masters

Developers

The rest of the Scrum Team is comprised of Developers. These people together should have all the skills necessary to deliver a done increment each sprint. Rather than being directed in their work, they are responsible to:

Picture of four fists connecting to demonstrate teamwork and self-management of developers on an agile Scrum Team
  • Define how the developers will work together
    • Create working agreements
    • Establish a definition of “Done” (DoD)
  • Plan work for each sprint
    • Create and maintain each Sprint Backlog
    • Negotiate goals with Product Owner
    • Size items in Product Backlog
    • Break down the work into tasks with estimates
  • Develop potentially releasable functionality
    • Meet established “Done” criteria (including quality)
    • Ensure that the Acceptance Criteria are satisfied
  • Demonstrate work at end of each Sprint
    • Only show work that meets the definition of “Done”
    • Celebrate goals that have been met
    • Acknowledge goals that were not met
  • Continuously look for ways to improve as a team
    • Seek out and implement automation opportunities
    • Make quality improvements
    • Experiment

Traditional Project Roles

So, where does this leave traditional roles on a project such as:

If you are currently in one of these roles, and are transitioning to Agile, you might be worried whether you will have a place on a newly formed Scrum Team. While the same titles may not exist in Agile, many of the skills of these traditional project roles are still needed. Here’s how I often see these roles and responsibilities break apart when adopting Scrum:

Project Manager (PM)

  • There’s no such role recognized in Scrum
  • The developers make their own work assignments – their work is not directed
  • Planning is done in smaller “chunks” – rolling wave planning is performed iteratively
  • Scope control is not necessary – Agile embraces changes and no formal change management is required
  • Responsibility for budget and schedule are often shifted to the Product Owner
  • There are no stage gates or phases – instead, there are timeboxes for Scrum events
  • The PMBOK® knowledge areas may still apply, but within the Scrum framework
  • Project Managers can transition to Scrum Masters, but only if they let go of control and learn to be leaders who serve

Business Analyst (BA)

  • Business Analysis skills are still needed by the team
  • BAs may become Product Owners, or assist in Backlog refinement and management
  • A Business Analyst may also assist with other tasks such as Quality Assurance testing
  • Unlike in waterfall, requirements are uncovered as the project progresses – not all upfront
  • Business Analysts are involved in project / product from beginning to end 
  • Requirements are discovered and analyzed “just in time” at an appropriate level of detail
  • There is no such thing as a “Business Requirements Document”
  • Documentation is only created as needed or where there is value

Programmers / Developers

  • There’s more interaction with the people who use directly use the product
  • Being self-managed/self-directed is a big change for some
  • Developers make their own work assignments
  • They should be willing to help in other areas (e.g. analysis, testing)
  • A developer may demo features to senior leaders and other stakeholders
  • Developers must be willing to learn new engineering practices

Quality Assurance Analysts (QA)

  • Quality Assurance is everyone’s responsibility on a Scrum Team
  • Someone with QA skills is called a developer, just like everyone else
  • QA should collaborate with Developers – they are not the enemy
  • People with QA skills should look for opportunities to apply test automation
  • Testing is performed throughout each iteration, not just at the end
  • Any defects discovered are either fixed immediately or put into the Product Backlog

Final Thoughts

So, while your job title may not be reflected by your role on a Scrum Team, the skills and knowledge you had in a traditional project environment can still be used in an Agile environment.

If you are transitioning to Agile, or have already gone through such a change, does this align with your experience? If not, what differences do you see? I’m very curious to hear if anyone has seen a different impact on traditional roles when adopting Agile. Let me know what you think!