Identifying the Roles and Responsibilities

A Scrum Team is usually a team of five to nine people and is responsible for the implementation. There are three main roles within the team: Product Owner, Team, and Scrum Master. Within the team, there can only be one Product Owner.

The Product Owner is a process-knowledgeable person from the customer and defines the requirements and priorities of the project.

The Scrum Master is the servant team leader who's responsible for moderating meetings, coaching the team in terms of Scrum processes and improvements, and giving support in resolving any issues during the project.

There are no assigned roles and hierarchies within the team. The cross-functional team is responsible for design, development, testing, and any other resulting tasks. The Scrum team is self-managing, and, while it can seek help and advice from outside the team, the inner workings of the team shouldn't be affected by people outside of the team.

While the Project Manager holds the overall responsibility of the project, they don't advise on what or how things are done. The Product Owner sets what's required and its priority, having a very good business understanding.

The Development Team (Project Team) defines how the requirements are implemented as they have the technical expertise. They also estimate the effort for each item.

• Is responsible for the success of the product and, therefore, of the final value

• Provides a complete picture and vision for the product

• Knows customer contacts for product reviews

• Knows and understands market or key customers' business needs

• Has the required business process knowledge as well as domain expertise

• Has a complete picture of the product standards

• Builds feature plans

• Decides on priorities for product development based on the highest business value

• Deals with stakeholders for product requirements

• Communicates and explains product requirements to the development team

• Transfers customer and market demands to the development team

• Knows relevant stakeholders to deal with

• Advocates to others (for example, management, stakeholders)

• Has persuasive communication skills and is a good listener

• Organizes or participates in test cycles

• Has the overall responsibility and accountability of his Product Backlog

A critical success factor for an Agile approach like Scrum is to have a good Product Owner.

The figure, Critical Success Factor: Product Owner, describes some of the characteristics of a successful Product Owner.

On the contrary, if a Product Owner isn't empowered, available, or qualified they can barely do their job properly. If one of these items is identified, quick actions have to be taken.

The Scrum Master supports the Product Owner by coaching them and trying to improve their way of working.

• Map/implement the vision and process requirements of the Product Owner to the SAP environment.

• Use as many SAP standard accelerators as possible.

• Demonstrate the standard process in the SAP environment to the Product Owner.

• Provide input and ideas to the Product Owner about how to make the product as good as it can be and support to refine the User Stories.

• Help the Product Owner to understand the system so that they can define the wish list.

• During Sprints, develop the highest priority features.

A critical success factor of the Scrum Team is to be stable, as each member change is bringing in new dynamics, which keeps the team busy for some time and requires new improvement activities.

The figure, Critical Success Factor: Stable Teams, describes some of the features of a stable team.

The team requires various roles and responsibilities to properly implement an SAP solution. This figure shows some examples. They don't necessarily need to be a one-to-one person mapping – a person can have multiple roles.

Most of SAP projects are too big and complex to be implemented by one team. Teams are supposed to be independent of each other, which doesn't really reflect the reality. In this case, in SAP Activate, we use the Scrum of Scrums approach, where representatives of each team get together to discuss and manage the shared requirements and dependencies. Usually a Scrum Master or an Agile Coach supports them to keep the Scrum process and to overcome obstacles.

The Scrum Master is a servant leader who's responsible for moderating events, ensuring the Scrum process is respected, and supporting in resolving any issues during the project. The Scrum Master has the authority to terminate any development Sprint in case unresolvable issues arise or the workload proves to be unrealistic.

Scrum Master is a process facilitator, guide, coach, mentor, trainer, and motivator of the team. Scrum Master key responsibilities include the following:

• Helps the team to develop and adopt practices facilitating Agile understanding and project execution

• Acts as a guide in helping the team to adhere to the Scrum principles and practices

• Supports the team in getting direct access to the customer or Product Owner

• Supports removing impediments that prevent the team from completing the planned functionality

• Protect the team from bureaucracy and nonvalue added activities

• Provides thought leadership in Agile management tools being used by the team

• Facilitating and coaching self-organization

Finally, a Scrum Master helps the team to grow and achieve their goals, AND DOESN'T control or command the team. They're accountable for the team improvement and their way of working. In a perfect world, a Scrum Master could leave the team once it's fully self-sufficient. In reality, this rarely happens.

A successful Scrum Master requires a blend of soft and hard skills. They must excel in facilitation, communication, and conflict resolution. Scrum Master must and be adept at the servant leadership approach and must understand coaching and change management. A deep understanding of Agile and Scrum principles is critical, as are patience and empathy towards team members. While technical knowledge and understanding of the software development process can be advantageous, the ability to measure and report progress effectively is key. Above all, Scrum Masters should be committed to the team's success and constantly strive for self-improvement.

Abstracting the skills of a Scrum Master, they need to bring high skills in the following roles as described in the figure:

• Impediment remover

• Facilitator

• Coach

• Teacher

• Servant Leader

• Manager

• Change Agent

• Mentor

This is often an underestimated job, which brings a lot of value to the teams, and the success is hard to measure as each team is different and makes different progress.

Those are known Scrum Master checklists to identify improvement areas.

In an Agile customer project, the role of a Project Manager might not be the same as in a traditional project management setting, but there's still a need for someone to perform some critical functions that are commonly associated with project management.

The PM is responsible for the contractual delivery and all administration around the teams and external communication and stakeholder management, although they aren't deeply involved anymore as the teams are now following a self-organized and decentralized approach. There are contractual borders and needs that have to be followed and respected, setting the boundaries in an SAP project. This goes along with time, budget, and even scope management on higher granularity (depending on the contract type).

Here are a few reasons why we still need a project manager or someone performing a similar role:

• Communication: A project manager facilitates communication between the team and the client and stakeholders. They ensure that all stakeholders have a clear understanding of the project's progress, issues, and changes.
• Resource Allocation: Project managers play a crucial role in managing resources, including people, budget, and materials. They can ensure that resources are allocated and utilized efficiently.
• Risk Management: Project managers can help with identifying and managing risks and issues. They can anticipate potential roadblocks and plan for them accordingly.
• Project Vision and Strategy: While the team focuses on the tasks at hand, someone needs to keep an eye on the bigger picture. The project manager helps maintain the strategic vision and ensures that the team's work aligns with this vision. This can go along with Chief Product Owners in a scaled environment.
• Client Management: Project managers often act as the primary contact for clients. They manage client expectations, handle issues that can’t be handled by the teams, and ensure that the client is satisfied with the project's progress and results.
• Conflict Resolution: In any team, conflicts can arise. A project manager can help mediate disputes and find solutions that satisfy all parties, even if this is a primary task of a Scrum Master.
• Process Adherence: Agile methodology is about flexibility and adaptation, but it also includes specific processes and ceremonies. A project manager with the Scrum Master ensures that the team is adhering to these processes.

The fable of the Chicken and the Pig is used to illustrate the differing levels of project stakeholders involved in a project. The basic fable goes as follows:

A pig and a chicken are walking down the road.

The chicken says: "Hey Pig, I was thinking we should open a restaurant!"

The pig replies: "Hmm, maybe. What would we call it?"

The chicken responds: "How about 'ham-n-eggs'?"

The pig thinks for a moment and says: "No thanks. I'd be committed, but you'd only be involved."

Sometimes, the story is presented as a riddle:

Question: In a bacon-and-egg breakfast, what's the difference between the chicken and the pig?

Answer: The chicken is involved, but the pig is committed!

The fable was referenced to define two types of project members by the Scrum Agile management system: pigs, who are totally committed to the project and accountable for its outcome, and chickens, who consult on the project and are informed of its progress. This analogy is based on the pig, who provides bacon (a sacrificial offering, for which the pig must die) versus the chicken, who provides eggs (non-sacrificial).

For a Scrum project, the Development Team are considered people who are committed to the project while Product Owners, Scrum Masters, customers, and executive management, are considered to be involved but not committed to the project.