the responsibilities an agile team needs to be successful

Why do we need roles in an agile team?
Self-organisation is the goal of an agile team, but this does not happen unless the environment is provided. It is the responsibility of the leaders in a team to create and maintain this environment. However, we need to avoid creating bureaucracy and dogma so should try and steer clear of tightly defined roles and responsibilities. The boundaries need to be loose enough so we can get the most out of individuals and customise the roles to the requirements of the specific team.

Why add more roles at all then?
In my organisation either you’re a Developer or a Team Lead. This is not a fair reflection of the value our colleagues bring to the organisation. A great developer is worth exponentially more than an average developer and excellence needs to be appreciated. Also, what makes a developer good are not necessarily the same skills we’re looking for in a team lead.

The responsibilities an agile team needs to be successful
Below I’ve listed responsibilities desired in an agile team. Whilst I have grouped them by the roles of Team Leader and Lead Programmer they are by no means mutually exclusive and do not even have to be the responsibilities of either. We want to be creating teams that have senior people capable of taking on as many of these responsibilities as possible and then allowing them to decide who is best suited to do what. This will have the dual effect of empowering our teams (therefore reducing their dependency on management) and allowing people the flexibility to develop themselves in the areas they enjoy the most rather than feeling they are competing for a single position or even worse, not seeing one that’s suited to them at all.

Team Leader
Communication champion.
Gets the most out of the team.
Empowers the team.
Provides direction (can be technical and process).
Resolves conflict.
Removes blockages.
Makes sure everyone is happy.
Ensures standards and processes agreed within the team are maintained.
Ensure all members of the team have a proper understanding of the customer’s requirements.

Lead Programmer
Code champion.
Responsible for the quality of the code base.
Responsible for the underlying architecture for the software.
Responsible for technical decisions.
Ensure all members of the team have a proper understanding of the technical vision.
Train and informs developers on coding best practices.

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