Developers — a 3-min overview

Welcome to Scrum Sutra — a series where I shall share a 3-min overview of each element of Scrum and how it connects with the other elements in the bead to form Scrum Sutra.

Developers are one of the accountabilities of Scrum Team. The others being Scrum Master and Product Owner.

Scrum Guide defines Developers as people within the Scrum Team that are committed to creating any aspect of a usable Increment each Sprint that meets the Definition of Done.

Talking of Definition of Done, they are required to confirm to the DoD; and as part of Scrum team are supposed to create one.

Developers self-manage. I.e., they decide who does what, when and how. And the entire organization, especially the PO should respect that.

Developers are cross-functional. I.e., they have all the skills needed to create any aspect of a usable Done Increment each Sprint.

Scrum’s empirical process control will make transparent gap in their cross-functional skills when they are unable to create a usable Done Increment each Sprint. And as they are committed to continual improvement, they self-manage to bridge the gap.

Being part of the Scrum Team, they are responsible for all product-related activities; are accountable for creating a valuable and useful Done Increment every Sprint.

• During Sprint Planning, they create their own SB, reflecting the Sprint Goal and all work that is required to create a usable and valuable Done Increment.
• During Daily Scrum, they collaborate to establish a shared and common understanding between Developers on how they are progressing w.r.t. the Sprint Goal, inspect the progress toward the Sprint Goal and make necessary adaptation to their upcoming planned work which reflects in the Sprint Backlog.
• During Sprint Review, they present the result of their work and are open to feedback from Stakeholders based on the inspection done.
• During Sprint Retrospective, as a Scrum Team they inspect all aspects of their process and behavior and adjusts to improve quality and effectiveness.

Sprint Goal, time-boxed events, distinct accountability and prioritized Product Backlog helps Developers remain focused. They are Open to changing direction based on new information by timeboxing a Sprint and Courage to try new things and experiment.

That’s a 3-min overview on Developers. Stay tuned to the next in the Scrum Sutra series.