The Scrum Development Team

The Scrum Development Team is one of the most important parts of the Scrum team.

They are made up of the team members who are doing the tasks needed to deliver a potentially workable product.

The development team have a few characteristics which include the following :

  1. The development team should be small enough to ensure that they stay agile but are large enough to produce a potentially working product in a sprint.
  2. The team is made up of people with a range of skill sets. Their expertise is needed to create a potentially working product at the end of every sprint.
  3. The development team has autonomy to manage their own work. This enables them to improve their efficiency and effectiveness.
  4. Every team member has the same level of authority regardless of their contributions and they all share in the project’s accountability.
  5. Even though the Product Owner is responsible for the product backlog, the development team refines the tasks in the product backlog as a team.
  6. The development team has full control over the tasks in the product backlog and how many tasks they are assigned in a sprint.
  7. They apply the team swarming technique, which is when a team works on a few items in a sprint.
  8. They build in extra time for collaboration and knowledge sharing into the sprint. This helps support team bonding, knowledge sharing and gives them time to resolve any unforeseen issues.
  9. They regularly collaborate with the Product Owner and the Scrum Master to ensure that they are on the right track.
  10. They continuously deliver features at the end of every sprint to ensure that there is a working product.
  11. They review the product with the Scrum team and get feedback which they incorporate into the next sprint.
  12. They ensure that the scrum board is updated to reflect what they are working on and what has been “done”.