Developers, can be best describe as a pack of wolves, not too big not too small just the perfect size where every team member gels well with others; knows what he/she should do and what everyone else is doing. I came across a great quote on the site “www.quoteeveryday.com” which describes the Development Team perfectly.
From the Scrum Guide 2017:
The Development Team consists of professionals who do the work of delivering a potentially releasable Increment of “Done” product at the end of each Sprint.
That version was changed in Scrum Guide 2020 to emphasise that Developers are part of the same team and it is an accountability. Now it states
Developers are the people in the Scrum Team that are committed to creating any aspect of a usable Increment each Sprint.
The Developers are accountable for creating the “Done” increments at the end of every sprint; manage themselves and are also accountable for the quality of the deliverable. Being part of the self-managing and cross-functional Scrum Team, developers also exhibit the same characteristics.
What does self-managing team means?
Mike Cohn explains in one of his presentations:
Self-organisation or autonomous does not mean that a there is no control over the team; or the team decides what goal or vision it is going to pursue. Self-organization simply means how the team responds to the challenge that comes there way.
Self Management is the next level of self-organisation. Within the boundaries established by the organisation; Scrum framework, the Scrum Team is capable of managing and making decisions about the goals that they want to achieve, the way how they would want to achieve their goals and who all would be involved to achieve the goals. Self Management helps to provide the team a safe environment with boundaries in which the team is allowed to take transparent decisions which foster creativity of the team and allows them to continuously inspect and adapt.
Roles amongst Developers:
Scrum does not recognise any roles, titles within the developers. Everyone is a Developer and is equally accountable for the outcomes. Each team member may have a specialised skill and might have a specific focus area, yet the accountability lies with the entire team.
Cross functionality within the team
The developers within themselves will comprise of all the necessary skills required to create a “Done” increment.
Conclusion:
A Developer is an accountability within the Scrum Team that has professionals committed to creating a useable aspect of increment every sprint.
