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Self organizing teams

Last post 01:28 am August 30, 2014 by Rajshekhar sipoy
8 replies
08:03 am May 26, 2014

Hi,

self-organizing teams, do they need
a) a scrum master
b) a product owner?

in my opinion they still need both. is there anything they don´t need if they are working as a self-organizing team?

what are self-organizing teams doing?
do the pull the work and reorder user stories form/in the product backlog?

thanks in advance


08:16 am May 26, 2014

Where does this question come from?
In Scrum, there are 2 self organizing teams: The Scrum team and the development team (which is part of the Scrum team).
The Scrum team needs a scrum master and a product owner to be a Scrum team.
The development team also needs a scrum master and a product owner to be able to work. However the scrum master and the product owner are not part of the development team.
There are many things they don't need: Project managers, team leads, micromanagement,...
Pulling work and reordering user stories in the product backlog are examples of things self-organizing teams do.


08:22 am May 26, 2014

thanks for your answer.

but the self-organizing development team does not reorder the user stories in the product backlog. that is the job for the product owner, or?


08:43 am May 26, 2014

It is the job of the product owner. However the product owner can do his jobs himself or delegate them to the development team. In each case he remains responsible.
So it is possible and does not violate the Scrum rules if the development team reorders the user stories in the product backlog. But in conflicts, the product owner has the last saying.


11:59 am May 26, 2014

> The development team also needs a scrum
> master and a product owner to be able to work.

Strictly they shouldn't need an SM or a PO in order to develop a potentially releasable increment. They should have all the skills and capabilities necessary for creating such an increment, or should aim to acquire them.

However a Development Team does need an SM and a PO, more or less by definition, in order to fulfil its responsibilities to the Scrum Team and the shared process.


02:51 am May 27, 2014

You are right Ian, that's what I meant with "being able to work". Without a PO, they don't know which PBIs to work on next, and without the SM it is hard for them to improve their process.


08:54 am June 2, 2014

Self-organized is not enough.
The Dev Team is not supposed to be self-design and self-managed (but it can be).

The self-organized dev team need "something" or "someone" to manage the boundaries and to align the dev-team with the company's target.
Isn't it par of the SM & PO duties ?


02:32 pm June 2, 2014

> The self-organized dev team need "something" or "someone" to manage the boundaries

In Scrum the "boundaries" to be managed are those between sprints. If the work of multiple teams must be integrated in order to produce an increment, then the negotiation across team boundaries need only involve the Development Teams themselves. They should have all the skills and resources required to build the increment, and no other roles or parties should strictly need to be involved.


01:28 am August 30, 2014

Self Organizing Teams can be simple and yet be very effective.
Here is the post which have the hand guide for the same.

http://bit.do/selforgteam


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