Agile Roles and Responsibilities

What’s expected of me in this new Agile team?

When we work with teams transitioning to Agile, we have to address the transition from existing roles and the anxiety surrounding the change:

• What will be expected of me?
• What can I expect of others?
• Will my skills still be valuable?
• How can I contribute?
• I’ve heard that there are only developers and customers on Agile projects. Don’t they need testers, designers, analysts, architects, managers…?

Portia and I have written a number of Agile Team Roles and Responsibilities in the form of User Stories and Acceptance Criteria. We use these as a start to help the team define the roles they need to deliver value.

Just remember

• These are only a start to a conversation about roles within the team.
• Role does not equal person. A role can be filled by many people; a person can be in one or more roles. A team where many people can take on a role is more flexible, smarter, more resilient and more efficient.
• Roles change fluidly over time. In an agile team, people will take the responsibility for a role as the need arises.

How do you add value to your team?