SelfOrganizing Scrum Teams Characteristics Competent Collaborative Motivated Trusting

Self-Organizing Scrum Teams Characteristics Competent Collaborative Motivated Trusting & Respectful Maintain Continuity (Working together as a team for a reasonable duration)

The team “Pulls” work for themselves • • • Does not wait for leader to assign the work Manages work as a “team” Doesn’t require “command control” oversight Communicates effectively with one another Understands requirements – members not afraid to ask questions • Continually learning – enhancing skills

Self-Organizing Scrum Teams Challenges and Strategies Unlike traditional teams, sell-organizing teams are not directed and controlled from the top They evolve from all team members participating actively & collectively in all the Scrum practices… The benefits of self-organization mainly arise through team members sharing and learning Team Learning takes place by observing & exposure to team members with diverse skills and background Frequent interactions lead to close team bonding and identification with project commitments The most essential requirement is for all members to actively participate in all Scrum events

Challenges Team Inertia Usually enthusiastic at the start Challenges surface and the common response of members is to back-off and return to the “old ways of working” and to not engage with members in the Scrum practices Personality Types In the workplace (and student projects), personality types differ. Some are loners, doing their “own” thing and not participating in meetings or social interactions with team members Others, are socializers that can spend hours interacting, discussing… and not getting work done … and other types

Challenges Personality Types (continued) In addition, there aggressive types, as well as passive types. The team is expected to manage itself! “Scrum provides a well-protected and secure environment for the team to work in” The team is expected to choose the best way to do their work… The team owns the responsibility!

A second set of challenges Personality Clashes Teams are small, which facilitates interactions and collective participation Teams are also cross-functional (that means that all team members work closely … in the design, development, testing, documenting) Segregating and with team members specializing can potentially create problems… (“It’s not my job… I’ve got my own work to do”) When all team members do not meet together… the result is less interaction of members… and less commitment… and less accountability

A second set of challenges Absence of individual team member commitment and accountability “It is the team that is accountable…” This means that no single person is accountable … Check out the 2017 Scrum Guide (the link to the guide is on CSc 191 website) Some of the “The Scrum Rules” Scrum roles, artifacts and rules are immutable The Product Owner is one person, not a committee (responsible for managing the Product Backlog) Self-organizing teams choose how best to accomplish their work There are no titles for Scrum team members The Scrum Master is a Servant Leader to the team (this role is filled by the team’s Faculty Adviser and or course instructor) The work remaining and date are the only variables of interest