Locked lesson.

Upgrade

About this lesson

To do the work of the Sprint, a Scrum Team must be assigned.

Exercise files

Download this lesson’s related exercise files.

Step 2: Assign Scrum Team.docx
61.8 KB Step 2: Assign Scrum Team - Solution.docx
61 KB

Quick reference

Step 2: Assign Scrum Team

To do the work of the Sprint, a Scrum Team must be assigned.

When to Use Step 2: Assign Scrum Team

The Scrum Team must be assigned prior to the start of the Sprint so that all team members are able to attend Sprint Planning and can be dedicated to the Sprint activities during the time of the Sprint. When possible, Scrum Team members should be identified at least two weeks before the start of the Sprint so they are able to clear their schedule for the duration of the Sprint.

Instructions

Assigning individuals to the Scrum Team seems to be an obvious activity, and it is. However, there are several important points to consider when doing this assignment.

  • The Scrum Team is normally cross-functional, with the represented functions being dictated by the Stories in the Sprint Backlog.
  • Although the team is cross-functional, that does not mean that certain tasks must be done by a particular team member and no other. The team is cross-functional in order to bring lots of expertise onto the team.
  • The team should be designed so that there is adequate skill and experience for them to do all of the stories in the Sprint Backlog.  This includes both the technical or functional skills and the business or organizational skills. 
  • The team needs to have the skills and experience to both estimate the work and do the work.
  • In addition the team members must have the personal leadership skills to make decisions. Team members cannot rely on someone else to make their decisions for them.
  • The Scrum Team members are assigned full-time to the project for the duration of the Sprint. They do not work on other projects or other activities. The senior managers must take this into consideration when determining who can participate on the Scrum Team.
  • The team will decide how best to organize to do the work, senior management does not need to appoint a project leader or Core Team members.
  • The Scrum Master often works with senior management to identify individuals for assignment to the Scrum Team. The Scrum Master is familiar with the Story Cards, so he or she can provide insight about the type of work to be done. The Scrum Master often must guide the senior management in team member selection to ensure the individual has the technical and team leadership skills needed to be an effective Scrum Team member.
  • If some of the Scrum Team members are not experienced with Agile/Scrum, the Scrum Master will provide the needed training so that they understand the Sprint process and their own roles and responsibilities.

 

Hints and Tips

  • Make sure both management and team members understand that the assignment is a full-time assignment for the duration of the Sprint.
  • The personality of the Scrum Team members should be an important consideration. You want someone who is self-motivated and willing to take action. A Scrum Team member who sits back and waits to be told what to do is not very effective.
  • Continuing with the museum website example:   
    • Product Owner: Ray
    • Scrum Master: Heather
    • Scrum Team: Terry, Rachel, Ted
    • The makeup of the Scrum Team was heavily influenced by who was available during the week of the Sprint.
Login to download
  • 00:03 Hi, this is Ray Sheen.
  • 00:04 The second Agile/Scrum step
  • 00:07 is to assign the team that will do the work of a sprint.
  • 00:10 This sounds pretty basic, and on one hand it is.
  • 00:14 But the Agile/Scrum process is different from traditional projects in several ways.
  • 00:19 And these will impact the decision of who to assign to the scrum team.
  • 00:23 Let's look at a few of them.
  • 00:25 The scrum team members are often cross-functional.
  • 00:27 I don't mean that there is one person from every function,
  • 00:30 rather that every person can do multiple functions.
  • 00:34 Everyone on the Scrum Team starts working on day one of the sprint and
  • 00:38 they work straight through untill the end of the sprint.
  • 00:40 We don't have a portion of the team sitting back waiting for
  • 00:43 someone else to finish so that they can start.
  • 00:46 An individual may not be able to lead every task but they can help out on many.
  • 00:51 In addition, each Team member should have the business and
  • 00:54 technical skills that are needed to accomplish the work of the sprint.
  • 00:58 Therefore, the Scrum master will work with senior management to identify
  • 01:02 individuals with the skills and experience will enable them to do the work.
  • 01:06 The individual must be both a planner and a doer.
  • 01:09 They need to be able to decide what must be done to complete the story,
  • 01:13 determine the best way to do that, and then execute on their plan.
  • 01:18 Another major difference between the Agile Scrum and
  • 01:20 traditional projects Is that the entire Scrum Team has dedicated 100% of their
  • 01:24 time to the project for the duration of the Sprint.
  • 01:29 They aren't supporting other projects or activities.
  • 01:32 This will eliminate some of the individuals in the organization for
  • 01:34 consideration as Scrum Team members.
  • 01:37 Don't get talked into compromising this principle of agile scrum.
  • 01:40 If management will not dedicate the team,
  • 01:42 then switch to traditional project management.
  • 01:45 The agile scrum tools do not work well in a part time environment.
  • 01:50 You may recall them in another session I said the scrum team was self organizing.
  • 01:55 Senior management does not need to appoint a project leader or a chord team members.
  • 01:59 Instead the team will decide how best to organize themselves
  • 02:02 to plan an execute the work of the Sprint backlog.
  • 02:05 That implies that the people who are assigned to the team are self-motivated
  • 02:09 and action-oriented.
  • 02:10 A Scrum Team member who waits to be told what to do
  • 02:13 is often just dead weight on the team.
  • 02:16 The last point of difference between traditional and
  • 02:18 Agile/Scrum that the Scrum Team is fully empowered to
  • 02:23 conduct all the activities to accomplish the stories in the Sprint backlog.
  • 02:27 They should not need to go to any other department to ask Mother,
  • 02:30 may I for permission to do what needs to be done.
  • 02:34 That may mean that someone with the authority to do things,
  • 02:36 like place purchase orders, is on the Scrum Team.
  • 02:40 Now let's look at the roles, responsibilities and
  • 02:42 deliverables of this step.
  • 02:45 Once an individual's assigned to a scrum team they're expected to clear their
  • 02:48 schedules for the duration of the sprint.
  • 02:51 The scrum masters working with senior management to review potential candidates
  • 02:55 for scrum team membership.
  • 02:56 The scrum master normally meets with each individual assigned to provide any needed
  • 03:01 training and to ensure their expectations about the assignment are inline
  • 03:05 with what reality is likely to be.
  • 03:07 The product owner does not have any responsibilities in this step.
  • 03:11 And of course, senior management must actually assign the Team members.
  • 03:15 Let's now take a look at our museum website example.
  • 03:19 Well, as I already mentioned, I had asked Heather to be the scrum master and
  • 03:23 I was the product owner.
  • 03:24 The timing for the sprint was determined, to some degree,
  • 03:27 by when people would be available to work on the project.
  • 03:30 I had decided to organize the product backlog into two releases and
  • 03:33 each release would have one sprint.
  • 03:36 The first sprint would be the week of October 10 through 14.
  • 03:38 We would just have five days in this sprint.
  • 03:41 The team members were selected based upon availability during this time.
  • 03:46 The Scrum Team members had a mixture of writing, graphic design,
  • 03:50 and technical skills.
  • 03:51 They were Terry, Rachel, and Ted.
  • 03:53 Only one of the team members actually worked for
  • 03:55 the museum, everyone else was a volunteer with the museum.
  • 03:59 Therefore there was not a lot of senior management activity needed
  • 04:02 to make the assignments.
  • 04:04 Sometimes assigning the Scrum Team members It's a simple
  • 04:08 task that goes very smoothly and quickly.
  • 04:12 Other times, it's a lengthy negotiation.
  • 04:15 Either way it must be done because the Scrum team is needed to continue to
  • 04:19 the next step.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

PMI, PMP, CAPM and PMBOK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

Gift this course