Decision making process within a Scrum team

scrum

Two questions:

  1. I assume that when Scrum coaches say "the team should decide" they mean there has to be a consensus decision process usually facilitated by the Scrum Master?

  2. What if there is a disagreement between members of the Scrum team on the way to develop/design some feature and a consensus cannot be reached, who decides? The Scrum Master? The system architect? The funcional manager?

Thanks.

Best Answer

You're right when you say:

  1. It's a decision for the Scrum Team. AND
  2. If the Scrum Team cannot agree on an approach then the Scrum Master may well facilitate a process to help the team decide.

Thereafter, if a consensus cannot be reached, the Scrum Team have effectively decided not to decide. This is a dysfunction that the Scrum Team have to address.

The Scrum Master should never decide for the team (and there is no such thing as a System Architect or Functional Manager in Scrum).

The Scrum Team have to resolve the situation for themselves. As a Scrum Master, I might encourage them to try one approach for one Sprint, and the other approach for another Sprint, and then review at the Sprint Retrospective. Inspect, adapt and move forward.

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