{"id":537,"date":"2020-08-07T15:39:45","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T13:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robertkalweit.com\/en\/?p=537"},"modified":"2021-12-03T12:36:45","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T11:36:45","slug":"responsibilities-in-an-agile-company-from-scrum-team-to-c-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertkalweit.com\/en\/2020\/08\/07\/responsibilities-in-an-agile-company-from-scrum-team-to-c-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Responsibilities in an agile company: From Scrum Team to C-Level"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article aims to draw a simplified high level picture about the responsibilities of all major roles across a given hierarchy from Scrum team to C-Level (however flat that hierarchy may be).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article originally appeared on Quandoo@Medium<\/a> under the headline How to Scale Responsibilities From Scrum Team to C-Level<\/a>. The following is a strongly abbreviated version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responsibilities in a Scrum Team<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Product Owner<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Product Owners are responsible for the Product Backlog. Everything from inception and validation of ideas, research, concepts and eventually User Stories. A Product Owners prime motivation and responsibility is the generation of value and thus effectiveness<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Team<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

(Development) Teams are responsible for implementing the most important and\/or most valuable Product Backlog items. They self select how many Backlog Items they commit to getting done<\/em> in a given Sprint. Why is this autonomy so important? Only with the autonomy to decide how much to do in one Sprint<\/em> the Team gains full control of quality<\/strong>. No compromises, no shortcuts: Delivering things in good quality<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This might be controversial: Does only Team focus on quality? What about the Product Owner? Quality products will surely deliver more value, no? Of course! But with all kinds of creative work and software development in particular, there can be an unseen lack of quality: Your product might be ready and usable, but how long will it work? How far will it scale? How much effort is it to maintain it? How easy is it to extend? Only the team can keep this in check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ScrumMaster<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

My brief summary of the responsibilities of and shout out to ScrumMasters: Please care for facilitating events and generating a common understanding of all things! Care for agile best practices and help (both!) other roles to self-organize! Help people to continuously improve and work with other ScrumMasters to drive organizational agility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ScrumMasters\u2019 sole responsibility boils down to efficiency<\/a><\/strong>. Make sure we\u2019re doing those good things in the best way possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disclaimer: If effectiveness is not taken care of by the Product Owner and the Team doesn\u2019t care enough for quality, then of course it remains a task of the ScrumMaster to coach them to get there. After all there is a priority in those responsibilities and it must be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Effectiveness<\/li>
  2. Quality<\/li>
  3. Efficiency<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThere is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.\u201d \u2015 Peter Drucker<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Responsibilities
    Responsibilities at scale: Team collaboration<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Credit where credit is due<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    This view of Scrum roles\u2019 is strongly inspired by this great post on Agile42\u2019s blog<\/a> by Martin von Weissenberg<\/a>, who expertly lays out how the three Scrum roles enhance one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Responsibilities in a Management Board<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The Chief Product Officer (CPO)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    The CPO takes care of building \u201ca great product that avails sustainable value in terms of revenue and profits for the business [and] is responsible for all product-related matters.<\/a>\u201d (Wikipedia) The why<\/em> behind all activities from product vision to various stages of product development and product marketing is value generation: The use of means of production to generate enough revenue to make a profit. The capability of producing a desired output (which for any investment is profit) is called effectiveness<\/strong>. The Product Owner of one team owns that teams Product Backlog. The CPO owns the Company Product Backlog and is responsible for sizing and prioritizing items in that backlog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Chief Technology Officer (CTO)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    The responsibility of a CTO is to \u201cmake decisions for the overarching technology infrastructure that closely align with the organization\u2019s goals [\u2026]. A CTO should be aware of new and existing technologies to guide the company\u2019s future endeavors.<\/a>\u201d (Wikipedia) So with regards to our products, the CTO is responsible (on the highest level) for the exact same things Teams are responsible for on a ground level:<\/p>\n\n\n\n