Learn Cross-functional Teams in Scrum (CSM) with Interactive Flashcards
Master key concepts in Cross-functional Teams in Scrum through our interactive flashcard system. Click on each card to reveal detailed explanations and enhance your understanding.
Self-Organizing
A self-organizing team is one wherein the team members themselves devise solutions and plan work rather than waiting for a clear directive from a supervisor or a manager. The member group is entrusted with the roles of task allocation, scheduling, and problem-solving. Working as a self-organizing team helps the members understand each other's strengths and weaknesses, enhancing the overall productivity of the team. These teams are generally more flexible and able to react quickly to changes.
Collective Ownership
In Scrum, Collective Ownership indicates that the entire team is collectively responsible for delivering the product. It's not about individual contributors, but the team as a whole. Everyone is responsible for the work quality, and everyone is encouraged to propose changes or improvements. Collective ownership enhances accountability and facilitates knowledge sharing, reducing the team's dependence on individual members.
Cross-skilling
Cross-skilling refers to the development of new competencies and skills beyond the team members' basic area of expertise. In a scrum team, being cross-skilled means that team members can work on various tasks across different functional areas. This increases the adaptability of the team allowing more flexibility in dealing with bottlenecks, decreasing delivery time and improving the ability to cope with unpredicted changes.
T-shaped Skills
T-Shaped Skills refer to an individual's depth of knowledge in a single field (depicting the vertical line of the 'T'), complemented by the ability to collaborate across disciplines (representing the horizontal bar of the 'T'). In a Scrum team, members with T-shaped skills can contribute with their expertise and also support or replace other team members if needed. This allows the team to be more resilient and adaptable to work obstacles and staff turnover.
Shared Responsibility
Shared Responsibility refers to the concept that all team members are equally responsible for the delivery of the project. In Scrum, a task is not individually owned by a single person, but it is owned by the whole team. This means that if a particular task fails or if a project is unsuccessful, the responsibility is shared by everyone in the team equally. On the other hand, if the project is successful, all team members share the credit. Shared responsibility fosters collective problem-solving and encourages effective team collaboration.
Continuous Learning
Continuous Learning is a core part of cross-functional teams in Scrum. This refers to the characteristic of teams to constantly seek improvement and learning in their skills and processes. Teams reflect on what went well and what could be improved after each sprint in Sprint Retrospectives, enhancing their practices and growing collectively as a result. The team should be always open to learning from mistakes, to experimentation, and to constant skill enhancement.
Cohesion
Cohesion involves team members working together and complementing each other’s skills to achieve the sprint goals. Team members depend on each other to deliver a finished product. When one team member completes a task, it must fit with the work of others to create a cohesive whole product increment. A high level of group cohesion would result in high productivity, morale, and satisfaction within the team.
Shared Accountability
Shared Accountability in Scrum is an important concept that has its roots in the shared beliefs and shared responsibilities of Scrum's cross-functional team members. In this, every team member is responsible for the success or failure of the project. Instead of pointing fingers at individuals for failures, the whole team works collaboratively to identify the root causes and work on those to ensure success in next sprint. This promotes a sense of unity, cohesiveness, and mutual respect among the team members.
Role Fluidity
Role Fluidity implies that every team member in a cross-functional Scrum team is ready and capable to take on different roles, other than their defined job role, whenever the team requires. It ensures that the project does not halt or slow down if a team member is absent or leaves. This encourages learning and growth among team members as they get to experience different aspects of the project lifecycle, improving their overall understanding and skills.
Consensus Decision Making
Consensus Decision Making is a decision-making process that involves all team members in a cross-functional Scrum team and ensures all agree to the final decision. This way, decisions are not imposed but mutually agreed upon. This boosts the team morale and inspires the team members to work harder as they feel valued and responsible for taking the project forward.
Frequent Communication
Frequent Communication is crucial in a cross-functional Scrum team. Daily stand-ups, regular retrospectives, and planning sessions help maintain transparency and alignment among team members, irrespective of their roles. Regular updates on work progress, challenges and successes foster a culture of openness and shared understanding that is essential for the timely completion of tasks and achievement of project goals.
Shared Responsibility
Shared responsibility refers to the collective accountability of a cross-functional team in Scrum. It means every member is responsible for the team's success and each one's actions can impact the final result. This concept emphasizes collaboration and mutual commitment towards achieving a common goal. Shared responsibility also includes two aspects: shared problem-solving and shared decision-making. When a problem arises, the team works together to solve it using their diverse skills and expertise. Similarly, decision-making processes are collaborative, ensuring all voices are heard. Leveraging shared responsibility in Scrum teams can lead to a more supportive work environment, higher productivity rates, and increased team agility.
Communication and Collaboration
In Scrum, communication and collaboration are crucial components for the success of cross-functional teams. Communication means conveying information effectively and facilitating the exchange of thoughts, ideas, and feedback within the team. It promotes transparency, which is a core principle in Scrum. On the other hand, collaboration emphasizes working together to achieve the sprint goal. Collaboration tools in Scrum include daily stand-up meetings, sprint planning meetings, and sprint review meetings. The integration of communication and collaboration fosters trust, boosts creativity, and ensures seamless workflow across the team.
Autonomy
Autonomy in cross-functional Scrum teams implies the team's freedom to manage their work. This can encompass initiating, planning, organizing, and managing all tasks required to achieve the sprint goal. Autonomy is closely related to the self-organization, but it specifically emphasizes the independence and authority the team has in making crucial decisions that impact their performance. It nurtures a sense of ownership, cultivates innovation and fosters agile behaviors within the team.
Empirical Process Control
Empirical process control is a critical Scrum framework concept applied to cross-functional teams. It means making decisions based on observed and proven experience or knowledge (empiricism). This process implies that the team learns through experiences, mistakes, and adjustments, not just from initial planning. This approach works well in complex and unpredictable environments, encouraging flexibility, transparency, and continuous improvement. Key empirical events in Scrum include Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective.
Interdisciplinary Learning
Interdisciplinary learning is another essential concept in Scrum. It refers to the process where team members learn from each other’s disciplines, enhancing their skills and knowledge. This approach promotes cross-skilling and helps build T-shaped employees. For instance, a developer might learn about quality testing, while a tester could gain insights into software development. It also aids in sharing a common understanding of project goals, thereby accelerating the delivery process, and enhancing team performance.
Holistic Product View
The holistic product view is a principle vital in any cross-functional scrum team. This principle insists on having all team members understand the larger perspective of the project at hand. This means every team member, irrespective of their specialized roles, understand the product as a whole and not just the features or components they are working on. The key benefit of maintaining such an approach is that it allows team members to help each other out better, reduces dependencies and enables smoother coordination. It also ensures that everyone on the team is aligned to the product’s purpose, hence driving quality outcomes.
Active Communication
Active Communication is another critical concept in cross-functional Scrum teams. It implies that for a team to work successfully, they must maintain continuous, clear, and open channels of communication among themselves. The scrum meetings facilitate this, but it should also exist as a norm in the team's culture. Active communication makes sure that everyone's on the same page, issues or blockers are addressed timely, and there's an environment of collective problem-solving. Good communication also ensures transparency and trust within the team, which in turn increases productivity.
Respect and Trust
In Cross-functional teams, Respect and Trust are the cornerstones that leads to a higher degree of collaboration and team performance. Trust provides a safe environment where team members feel comfortable to express their ideas without fear of criticism or rejection, which ultimately leads to innovative solutions. Respect, on the other hand, helps to value the individual skills and contributions that each member brings to the team. It is only when team members trust each other and respect each other's competences, a true cross-functional team gains its full potential.
Clear and Shared Goals
Having Clear and Shared Goals is necessary for a cross-functional Scrum team's success. It's vital that every team member understands what the team is striving to achieve and are all aimed towards that objective. The vision of the product or the iteration should be clearly stated and communicated across the team. Shared goals foster a collective sense of responsibility and keep everyone aligned with the project's purpose. This improves coordination, reduces conflicts and results in high-quality, efficient outcomes.
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