Responsibility in one person vs. in a team

Think of it in terms of risk mitigation and the avoidance of waste. You can have many crew members on a ship, all of whom add value, yet it is safest and most efficient if only one sets the course.

Great topic!!

I will discuss the topic based on 2 facets.

At first, spreading the responsibility for delivering a done increment on several persons is an internal point of view.

There is also one person is responsible for a done increment, the Product Owner.

The DT is responsible for the “OUTPUT” of the increment.
The PO is responsible for the “OUTCOME” of the increment.


Secondly, this is a course about problem-domain vs. solution-domain.

The PO is responsible for problem-domain, focus on WHAT-TO-DO rather than HOW to do.

For problem-domain, building the right thing, involving risks, value, TCO, ROI, it needs a quickly definitely final decision which is beneficial to concentrate the responsibility on one person.

The DT is responsible for solution-domain, focus on HOW-TO-DO more than WHAT-TO-DO.

For solution-domain, building the thing right, needing skills to tackle different requirements, tasks, techniques, it needs deep collaboration of a cross-functional, self-organizing team.
It is beneficial to spreading the responsibility people to improve the collaboration and buy in.

Thank you for your answers.
I like the picture of a ship which shows that this concept is thousands of years old.
The Product Owner is responsible for the course, the Development Team for the velocity.

The Product Owner is responsible for the course, the Development Team for the velocity.

It sound like a leadership concept and is suitable for any type of teams, organizations.
What do you think about as follows?
The team leader is responsible for the course, the team member for the velocity.
The CEO is responsible for the course, the staff for the velocity.

In my opinion, for a Scrum Team, the PO decides a clear and unambiguous destination and has the DT understanding it.
The DT is response for choose the best course to arrive at the destination using optimal velocity.

I'd say that the Development Team is responsible for the journey (to the destination) rather than the velocity

A Kanban team might reasonably be held accountable in terms of its velocity, but the responsibilities of a Scrum Development Team are of greater substance. They must maximize the value given to the Product Owner throughout the journey. Making good headway (velocity) is just one aspect of this.

Agree!

So I use the TERM: optimal velocity rather than maximum velocity.

Really great answer!
I would like to add some value. Perhaps we have the Development team with one responsible person - manager. It means that process within the team will build on command-and-control management. And so the team member will don't feel the own responsibility for the work of the team. We will have reduced of collaboration, because every team member does only work that manager said. Every team member will see the world only from manager window(from manager point of view). And like result we have an all work that depends on the one personnel - manager. In every moment we need a good manager available in other way we have a trouble.

Ian, I know what you mean with value and velocity. I chose the word velocity because it is applicable to both Development Teams and ships.
We are talking about the Santa Maria where you need a collaborating crew, and not about a roman trireme where you need a slave driver with a whip.
However, if you say the DT is responsible for the journey, this includes the course. So in your picture, the spanish king is PO. I like the picture of a PO actually being on the ship and holding the steering wheel, i.e. Christopher Columbus.

Really nice topic.

I agree with above - it's harder to decide on What then How. Shared vision is harder to sustain than choosing track to it.