Scrum Elevator
The Development Team is a cross-functional group responsible for delivering a usable product increment each Sprint, collaborating closely and managing their own work.
The Development Team consists of professionals who do the actual work of designing, building, testing, and delivering product increments each Sprint. By delivering potentially shippable increments, they directly contribute to achieving product goals and creating value for stakeholders.
Development Teams are self-organizing and cross-functional, meaning they decide internally how best to accomplish their work, and they have all skills necessary to deliver value. They collaborate closely with the Product Owner and Scrum Master to achieve the Sprint Goal. Teams manage dependencies, coordinate with external groups, and ensure quality through practices such as pair programming, automated testing, and code reviews. This self-organization fosters ownership, accountability, and resilience to change.
The concept of the Development Team has evolved since the early Scrum Guides. Initially, teams were described primarily as groups of developers. Over time, cross-functional skills and shared accountability became central. Many organizations still maintain the term for clarity in role definitions, even after the 2020 Scrum Guide moved to a single Scrum Team concept. Understanding the historical context helps teams appreciate the evolution of roles in Scrum.
Common misunderstandings include: (1) The Development Team only includes programmers. (2) Scrum Masters or managers assign tasks to the team. (3) Members must have rigid specialized roles like 'tester' or 'designer.' In reality, members are flexible, self-organizing, and collaborate across all necessary skills to achieve Sprint Goals.
Even though the term 'Development Team' is less emphasized in the 2020 Scrum Guide, it remains widely used in certification materials, corporate training, and onboarding. Understanding this concept helps teams transition from traditional role-based structures to true self-organizing, cross-functional Scrum Teams.
For instance, a Development Team working on a new e-commerce feature might include backend developers implementing APIs, frontend developers creating user interfaces, QA engineers performing automated testing, and a UX designer refining user flows. They collaborate daily, adjusting priorities based on Sprint Goals and stakeholder feedback.
Encourage knowledge sharing and pair programming to increase team versatility. Hold regular retrospectives to identify process improvements. Maintain a visible, transparent Sprint Backlog. Promote continuous learning through workshops or technical spikes. Avoid creating sub-teams that silo work — cross-functional collaboration ensures shared ownership and accountability.
Some skills, like database administration or specialized security expertise, may be rare and cannot feasibly exist in every Development Team. In these cases, Scrum teams can collaborate with experts as needed rather than having them permanently embedded. Options include consulting or rotating experts, using Communities of Practice, pairing with experts, or documenting processes to reduce dependency. The goal is to maintain team self-organization while leveraging necessary expertise.
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Download NowNo, Scrum discourages specialized roles within the Development Team to foster collaboration and flexibility.
The team is self-organizing and decides how to accomplish their work during the Sprint, often using tools like Sprint Backlogs and task boards.