Scrum Roles and Responsibilities: Product Owner, Scrum Master and Developers
This domain tests whether you can separate accountability from job title. Expect scenario questions where someone is behaving like a project manager, a proxy Product Owner or a task allocator, and you must name the correct accountability and the correct intervention.
The Product Owner
One person, not a committee. Accountable for maximising the value of the product resulting from the work of the Scrum Team. Owns the Product Backlog - its content, ordering and clarity - and communicates the Product Goal. The Product Owner may delegate work to Developers but remains accountable, and the organisation must respect their decisions: nobody else may instruct Developers to work from a different set of priorities.
The Scrum Master
A servant leader: a true leader who serves the Scrum Team and the wider organisation. Accountable for the team's effectiveness - coaching self-management and cross-functionality, helping the team focus on high-value increments that meet the Definition of Done, causing the removal of impediments, and ensuring all events take place, are timeboxed, and are positive and productive. The Scrum Master also coaches the organisation on Scrum adoption and on removing barriers between stakeholders and teams. The role carries no line-management authority over the team.
The Developers
Everyone on the team who creates the Increment. Self-managing - they decide internally who does what, when and how - and cross-functional, holding all skills needed to create value each Sprint. They build the Sprint Backlog, instil quality through the Definition of Done, adapt their plan daily toward the Sprint Goal, and hold each other accountable as professionals. Note the current wording: the single Scrum Team replaced the older split into a separate Development Team, and "self-managing" replaced "self-organising".
Worked example
In refinement, the tech lead assigns tasks and tells a developer to start on the database layer. Three things are wrong. Task assignment undermines self-management - Developers decompose and pull work themselves. The tech lead is acting as Scrum Master by directing the process, and as Product Owner by setting priority. The right intervention: the Scrum Master raises the behaviour in the Retrospective, the Product Owner restates the ordering and Sprint Goal, and the Developers choose their own work.
Traps
- Treating the Scrum Master as project manager, team lead or chairperson who assigns work.
- Accepting a proxy Product Owner, or a PO who merely relays decisions made by several stakeholders.
- Letting the PO estimate or commit on the Developers' behalf.
- Confusing self-managing (who, how, when) with being unaccountable to the Sprint Goal.