Scrum teams usually consist of 5 to 9 members. They have no team leader to assign or delegate tasks to them or to dictate how to address issues or solve problems. Scrum framework views every team member as an integral part of the solution by stating that each team member should contribute in whatever way they can to complete the work of each sprint. A Scrum team typically consists of three key roles and they are:

Product owner (PO)

The product owner is the project’s key stakeholder. A stakeholder is anyone who can influence or can be influenced by the final product. The product owner is also seen as the Voice of the customer (VoC) or a spokesperson for the customer. Also, the product owner is responsible for managing the product backlog and its prioritization.

ScrumMaster

The ScrumMaster is the team’s coach. The ScrumMaster is not a traditional project manager. Rather, the scrum master facilitates the team by ensuring that the team follows the Scrum practices, theory and rules. Also, the scrum master pushes the team to be the best it can be by removing distractions or impediments, facilitating meetings or sessions geared towards their improvement.

Development team

This consists of a cross-functional, self-organizing group of people that are responsible for delivering tangible increments at the end of a cycle or sprint. Although the team may consist of individuals with various job titles. In Scrum, these titles are insignificant. In the Scrum framework, team members should be ready to work beyond their preferred disciplines especially when it would be good for the team.

Sprint

A sprint is the fundamental unit of development in Scrum. It is a repeatable and fixed timeboxed period during which the Scrum team completes a particular work and makes it available for review. The duration for each sprint is typically within one week to one month, with the most common being two weeks.

Sprint planning

In the Scrum framework, Scrum teams usually hold meetings at the beginning of each sprint to discuss and agree on what items to deliver at the end of that sprint, steps they will take to achieve it and to develop a product backlog listing all the tasks they will undertake during the sprint.

Daily Scrum (or stand-up) Meeting

During this meeting, each team member will quickly and transparently disclose what they did since the last stand-up, what they will do that day, how they will go about it and any deterrent to their progress. This meeting should not last longer than 15 minutes.

Sprint review

This is an informal meeting at the end of a sprint, where the team presents the completed work to the Product Owner or other stakeholders. The purpose of the sprint review is to elicit feedback and encourage collaboration. Furthermore, at the end of the sprint review, the scrum team will have an updated Product Backlog with potential backlog items for the next Sprint.

Sprint retrospective

At the end of a sprint, a meeting will be held to discuss and reflect on the just concluded sprint. The team will focus on their overall performance, identify areas for improvement, then, agree on the processes to take towards continuous improvement.

The goal of the Scrum artifact is to maximize transparency and to promote a shared understanding of the work. The scrum framework describes three artifacts. The following are the Scrum artifacts:

Product backlog

The product backlog is an arranged list of requirements that the product might need. It helps to make the product priorities transparent to all stakeholders. The Product Owner is responsible for the product backlog. The Product Owner updates it and ensures it is always available to stakeholders and the team. Due to the dynamic nature of product development, the product owner constantly updates the backlog to reflect feedback and ideas from key stakeholders, changes in market conditions, or even business requirements to list a few.

Sprint backlog

The sprint backlog consists of the highest ordered requirements from the product backlog, a plan for how they will deliver the product increment and accomplish the sprint goal. Furthermore, the sprint backlog identifies the work needed by the development team to meet the sprint goal. The development team is responsible for the sprint backlog. Also, the development team updates the sprint backlog as they progress during the sprint.

Increment

The increment is a sum of all the product backlog that the Scrum team completes during a sprint and all the sprints preceding it. At the end of every sprint, the increment delivered must be in usable condition and must meet the development teams shared definition of “Done”. Definition of done means what it means for the work to be complete. In agile, increments are frequently referred to as “working software”.