Q: I’m working with a Scrum Team where decision ownership is becoming confusing. People are stepping over each other’s toes. Because of this, there is no accountability and decisions are slow. How should we clarify who owns what?
Thank you for the question.
“Who gets the final say?”
It sounds like a simple question. Yet it sits behind many of the problems Scrum Masters are asked to help with.
Can the Product Owner tell Developers how to implement a feature?
Can Developers decide that a stakeholder request is not worth doing?
Who decides whether to release?
Does the whole team need to agree on every process change?
And when people cannot agree, is the Scrum Master supposed to step in and make the call based on the Scrum Guide?
A healthy Scrum Team wants input from everyone. But it also knows where the final decision (or “say”) belongs.
Collaboration does not mean everyone decides everything.
Sometimes the Product Owner decides after listening to others. Sometimes Developers decide after clarifying the product need. Sometimes the whole Scrum Team needs to reach an agreement. And sometimes the decision is constrained by an organizational policy that the team cannot simply vote away.
Scrum Masters can help their teams make these unclear boundaries clear.
In this post, I will give you my take on this and a way to help your team define these boundaries.
Let’s get started.
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