Agile Roles & responsibilities

Editor's Notes

• #2: Key takeaway- Major Cultural Shifts in transitioning to Agile
• #4: The customer needs to be clearly identified. Is the end user internal or external. Who is going to use this? Agile works for 1 customer (client) or many. For consumer product with large number of customers, focus groups and user groups are ways to engage the customer. Plans and communication have to be built according to type of customer. The Agile Scrum Team roles are: Product Owner – represents the Customer and Stakeholders. Creates and prioritizes the product backlog (requirements) and accepts the work of the team. Scrum Master – guides the team in the Agile process. Runs the planning and standup meetings. Removes obstacles. Scrum Team Member – Every scrum team member is responsible to deliver the output of the team. Usually includes development and test, but may also include documentation, user experience, and more, based on the needs of the team. Multiple scrum teams on a project are coordinated through a “Scrum of Scrums” meeting.
• #5: The customer needs to be clearly identified. Is the end user internal or external. Who is going to use this? Agile works for 1 customer (client) or many. For consumer product with large number of customers, focus groups and user groups are ways to engage the customer. Plans and communication have to be built according to type of customer. The Agile Scrum Team roles are: Product Owner – represents the Customer and Stakeholders. Creates and prioritizes the product backlog (requirements) and accepts the work of the team. Scrum Master – guides the team in the Agile process. Runs the planning and standup meetings. Removes obstacles. Scrum Team Member – Every scrum team member is responsible to deliver the output of the team. Usually includes development and test, but may also include documentation, user experience, and more, based on the needs of the team. Multiple scrum teams on a project are coordinated through a “Scrum of Scrums” meeting.
• #6: From waterfall-like “Big Requirements Up Front” (BRUF) to “emergent requirements” to drive just enough architecture.
• #7: Responsibilities: Is responsible for the success of the product Defines project goals Establishes and communicate vision of the product aligned with a total customer solution Accepts/rejects User Stories using the Definition of Done and Acceptance Criteria Communicates expectations Decides what features go into the product Represents the User and Customer With input from subject matter experts, writes requirements in the form of User Stories, with well defined Acceptance Criteria Anyone may write a user story, product owners are responsible for understanding business value, review, acceptance and prioritization. Maintains the product backlog, prioritizing, incorporating new User Stories, and grooming out old User Stories. Responsible for prioritizing product backlog items Decides the order in which content is delivered Remains engaged and responsive to Scrum Team throughout the project Be available to the Scrum Team throughout the Iteration Point of contact for Scrum Team to get questions answered Helps team make decisions Never (ever, ever) produce estimates on behalf of scrum Team Works with Scrum Team to determine specific iteration content PO may end up writing technical stories, normally written by DEV team member. Customer Engagement Responsible for engaging the Customer and facilitating Customer  collaboration Facilitates internal and external Customer demo’s with the team members, for direct feedback Owns the Sprint Review (may be in conjunction with Scrum Master)
• #8: Responsibilities: Writes requirements in the form of User Stories, with well defined acceptance criteria. All stories are validated and approved by the Product Owner. Is accessible to team during a sprint to answer questions or give feedback on in-progress stories Support the Product Owner to maintain the product backlog, prioritizing, incorporating new User Stories, and grooming out old /no longer valid User Stories. All changes, no matter how minor, must be approved by the Product Owner. Engages in Look-Ahead meetings to ensure team understands backlog stories (upcoming sprints) Works with Scrum Master, Program Manager and Architect to create release plan for the Product Owner Seeks out and removes (or raises attention to) obstacles that reduce or limit team velocity
• #10: Responsibilities: Is responsible for the success of the usability of the product Defines project user experience concept Establishes and communicate design of the product user experience Partners with the Product Owner to accept/reject UI-related User Stories using the Definition of Done and Acceptance Criteria** Communicates user experience expectations Recommends what user experience features go into the product Partners with the Product Owner to represent the End User Creates (or leads UE team members in the creation of) wireframes, visual comps, and visual assets as part of preparing user stories to be ready for implementation. Assists Product Owner in ensuring well defined Acceptance Criteria from a user experience perspective where applicable. Assists the Product Owner in maintaining the product backlog, prioritizing, incorporating new user experience User Stories, and grooming out old User Stories. Recommends the order in which user experience content is delivered Remains engaged and responsive to Scrum Team throughout the project Be available to the Scrum Team throughout the Iteration for user experience-related issues and questions Point of contact for Scrum Team to get questions answered around user experience Helps team make decisions regarding user experience Produce estimates for user experience design activities Works with Scrum Team to determine specific iteration content Customer Engagement Responsible for planning and running usability studies as needed. Support the Product Owner with Customer collaboration on user experience and running Customer demo’s of design prototypes.
• #12: Responsibilities:   Observing and guiding Agile teams Provide feedback for improvement in a timely manner Answering ad-hoc Agile questions Support and develop the Scrum Master to make the Scrum Master more capable Provide Agile overview to new team/team members Ability to communicate with Scrum Masters/Product Owners and team members Participate on Agile Internal Coach Council Has respect and credibility at the local level Understands the local organizations and products Escalation of improvements as needed   Essential Experiences/ Skills: Agile Evangelist End to end product delivery experience Strong Facilitator Experienced Agile Mentor Strong knowledge of best practices Received coaching training from internal or external coaches Ability to communicate with Developers, Testers and other team members Respect and credibility within the various Agile teams Proven track record to work with cross functional teams Specialization in one or more Agile Practices Familiarity / trained in UE Agile Practices
• #14: Ramya started modification starting from this slide – 12/14
• #16: Responsibilities: Tightly integrates with Scrum Team(s); often, but not always, a member of Scrum Team(s) Insures implementation supports unit and functional testability, automation, scalability, performance, security, appropriate extensibility, etc. Insures that a customer solution view is brought to the code set. Continually provides technical mentoring to teams and individuals Seeks out and removes (or raises attention to) obstacles that reduce or limit team velocity Ensures that strong development methods are followed and high quality, maintainable code is being developed. Continually drives refactoring for solution simplification and code complexity reduction. Actively engaged in planning, look-ahead meetings Owns short / medium / long term product architecture and technical product vision. Must be aligned with customer solution architecture, overall BU technical vision, product roadmap and cuent technical architecture. Works with Product Owner to translate product ideas into technically feasible stories Coordinates with other external teams and Architects to communicate technical dependencies and requirements Works with Product Owner to put dependencies and external deliverables into product backlog
• #20: Responsibilities:   Facilitates Scrum Team Success Own the Agile process; Help educate the team on Agile process issues Identifies team improvement opportunities and looks externally for best practices in order to increase velocity and quality Make sure there is no hidden work, i.e., everything the Scrum Team is working on is acknowledged and accounted for Help the team to improve in the areas they have identified Manage ‘Work In Progress Limits’, i.e., make sure the team is not working on too many items at once, and help them get into a flow of starting and completing work in a predictable way Encourage the team to look for opportunities to help each other out Ensures a collaborative culture exists within the team and promotes team building Ensures entire team is engaged Ensures excellent retrospectives are run by the team   Deals with Team and meeting logistics Each Sprint, make sure team has capacity recorded, and that it is coectly balanced Work with the Product Owner to make sure User Stories are accepted Ensures entire team is engaged Invitations to and presence at Daily Scrum, Iteration Review, Planning Meetings and Customer demo logistics Work with the Product Owner to make sure User Stories meet Definition of Ready Facilitate retrospectives; Follow-up on actions from retrospectives Each Sprint, make sure the whole team is looking ahead to the next Sprint and thinking about the upcoming User Stories Each Sprint, make sure the Scrum Team has identified and sized the tasks before the Sprint Planning meeting Organize and facilitate demonstrations of the product between the Scrum Team and Product Owner   Tracks and communicates with outside stakeholders   Track and communicate the progress of the team each day (using Burn-down charts, etc.) Track and communicate the overall progress of the release (using Burn-downs, burn-ups, Cumulative Flow, etc.) Provide visibility on status and progress, particularly working with Program Manager and Product Owner Facilitates and insures the removal of any obstacles by the team. If the team can’t resolve then will escalate in a timely and aggressive way Shares team experiences and solutions with peers (Scrum Masters) Make sure there are no scope changes during the Sprint without discussion with Scrum Team and Product Owner Team Communicate agreed scope changes inside and outside the Scrum Team Shields team from external distractions
• #22: Responsibilities: Drives creation of program plan with program Product Owner (and others as designated by the organization) Monitors the progress of the program Drives discussion and resolution on issues that challenge the projects boundaries and goals Drives the commit process and identifies & communicates changes since the last commit Ensures that the program conducts retrospectives and project assessments Communicates overall status to senior management Identifies and tracks risks and mitigations Ensures Cisco requirements, ISO and CCBU C4 requirements are met. Seeks out and removes (or raises attention to) obstacles that reduce or limit team velocity Facilitates and communicates progress with Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and cross-func team, CA, Manufacturing and Localization. Communicates progress with dependent groups (solution release, other BUs and TGs or OEMs) Manages dependencies and resolves any external coordination issues Facilitates project activities to ensure goals and requirements are met Escalates issues to upper management as needed May be a Scrum Master the Scrum of Scrums meeting  
• #24: Responsibilities:   Leads and enables direct reports Creates an environment of trust for direct reports to be part of self-organized Scrum Teams Provides mentorship, guidance and career development advice, including ongoing 1:1 with direct reports Plans and manages skills development and training for team members Communicates performance evaluation expectations, applying Agile Roles and Responsibilities guidelines Leads recruitment and hiring of new Team members (with input of the existing Team members)  Complete performance evaluations for team members, using peer feedback and Scrum team success measures Provides recognition/reward to team members who are performing well, and takes action / performance management with team-members that are not. Actively supports Scrum Masters Supports Scrum Masters’ efforts to protect Teams from disturbance, disruption, or outside interference Promptly responds to escalations from Scrum Masters to help remove impediments interfering with Teams’ ability to get work done Actively supports Scrum Team Contributes to creating the right environment for Scrum Teams to be successful When requested by Scrum Team or as appropriate, provide advice and assistance to Scrum Teams on architectural direction and resolution of technical challenges E.g., scalability, performance, security, customer deployment, etc. Provides input to the Product Owner on product strategy and vision In the context of escalated exceptions to Definition of Done, provide and manage a plan to resolve. Help team understand how their efforts align with the other scrum teams that are involved in the release. Executes departmental responsibilities and accountabilities Performs financial planning and budgeting for functional area Support innovation and be a recognized technical expert in areas that are relevant Actively promote and support continuous improvement Stays up to date on industry news and developments, e.g., industry standards Understands and communicates company strategy, direction, initiatives, and portfolio roadmaps Understands the broad community of stakeholders that are affected by our company and products, including competitors, customers, analysts   Note: QA Manager provides a risk to ship to the Product Owner at the end of each Sprint.   For Functional Managers new to Agile, these behaviors conflict with Agile Scrum; Decide what work needs to be done Assign the work to Team members Keep track of what everyone on the Team is doing Make sure the Team gets their work done Make commitments to management about how much Team can do by a certain date Making commitments to management for the team Do weekly status update report for management   Note: Look at Pete Deemer’s Manager 2.0: The Role of the Manager in Scrum for more details http://assets.scrumtraininginstitute.com/downloads/4/roleofthemanager.pdf?1285932073  Are these fulfilled by DE Managers ? What happens to DT Managers? Is there still confusion about the roles   DT managers map to Functional Managers
• #28: RACI: Responsible, Accountable, Consultant, Informed