Roles in an Agile Team
There are two important roles in the Agile method: the Product Owner and the Scrum Master.
Agile Method: General Overview
The Product Owner
The Product Owner is the representative of the clients and their needs. They are responsible for the proper progress of product development and the outcome of the project.
Note: This post was translated from french with the help of AI. The original post was written with the knowledge of a younger me.
They do not participate in development and are not part of the Agile team because they must remain neutral with respect to the team spirit that forms.
They are responsible for prioritizing tasks during ceremonies in order to maintain objectives. They are the main maintainer of the Backlog and the Lean Canvas.
They are often assisted by the Scrum Master.
They have the ultimate decision-making power and are the only one who can move a story to DONE (with the possible exception of specific bots for repetitive NFRs such as updates).
They are the interface between the team and other project stakeholders, and of course, the clients.
Product Owners can be organized hierarchically, with a Product Manager overseeing all the Agile teams of a project and the global Backlog. In this case, the Product Owner of a team manages only the stories of the Backlog with the labels assigned to that team.
The Scrum Master
The Scrum Master is responsible for the well-being of the team. They ensure that the team consistently follows the Agile “Scrum” method and its best practices.
At first, they lead the team’s daily “ Scrum” meetings.
They serve the team, making sure it feels good and remains effective. They work to remove obstacles the team encounters.
They ensure that the team becomes more autonomous. They are the one who introduces new practices when necessary, in agreement with the Product Owner.
They are by no means a kind of team leader.
Product Owner & Scrum Master
There are two important roles in the Agile method: the Product Owner and the Scrum MasterTypes of Agile Teams
An Agile team is made up of at most 7 people. Beyond that, the team’s efficiency quickly decreases.
The environment of these teams will be explained in more detail in a future article. But here’s a preview.
MarketOps
The operational marketing team has the ability to determine short-term marketing strategies and implement them quickly.
DevSecOps
Inherited from DevOps. This team develops, deploys (operations), and secures its developments.
It may sometimes be split into two teams, with one team dedicated to testing in order to reduce human biases caused by teamwork.
Blue Team / Red Team
For projects with greater resources, two teams can be dedicated to project security (IT or otherwise).
The Red Team represents aggression and attack. Its role is to think like a potential attacker and find every flaw in the project to compromise it.
The Blue Team represents defense. Its role is to defend the project against attacks and set up the necessary tools to achieve this.
This approach makes it possible to prevent rather than cure.
The Sprints of these teams can be organized around objectives:
- The CTF (Capture the Flag) consists of retrieving information within the system for the Red Team and preventing it for the Blue Team;
- The destruction arena consists of destroying portions of the system for the Red Team and preventing it for the Blue Team;
- “You shall not pass!” consists of closing system access for the Red Team and keeping them open for the Blue Team (useful for IT DDOS attacks);