Who is the Scrum developer: role and responsibilities

The Scrum Developer is the professional responsible for creating the project deliverables, together with the rest of the Scrum team.

As described in the Scrum Guide, there are three core roles in Scrum, responsible for meeting the project objectives: the Product Owner, the Scrum Master  and the Development Team. The Development Team is made up by professionals who work to deliver a potentially releasable increment of “Done” products at the end of each Sprint. These professionals are the Scrum developers.

The Development Team is responsible for:

• understanding the business requirements specified by the Product Owner
• estimating the user stories in the sprint backlog
• developing the product/service (deliverables).

Each Scrum Developer is responsible for delivering a functional element (also known as chunk) of the product at the end of each sprint. 

Scrum Developer responsibilities 

When working for a Scrum project, Scrum Developers have the following responsibilities:

• Achieve the goals defined for each sprint
• Attend daily scrum meetings reporting the planned tasks for each day
• Assure to Product Owner and Scrum Master that the allocated work is being performed as planned
• Ensure a clear understanding of epics and personas
• Provide inputs on the creation of User Stories to the Product Owner
• Understand the User Stories
• Estimate User Stories approved by the Product Owner
• Commit User Stories to be done in a sprint and develop the list of tasks based on the User Story
• Report to the Scrum Master impediments to the progress of the project, if any
• Agree on the length of sprint with the other Scrum Team members 
• Develop the Sprint Backlog and the Sprint Burndown Chart
• Create the deliverables
• Update Burndown Chart, Scrum Board, and Impediment Log
• Submit Change Requests, if any
• Participate in Prioritized Product Backlog Review Meetings
• Identify improvement opportunities, if any, from the current Sprint and agree on any possible improvements for the next Sprint
• Participate in the Retrospect Project Meeting

The necessary skills for a Scrum Developer

A Scrum Developer should have:

• technical knowledge and skills (software analysis, coding, software programming or testing)
• a deep knowledge of the Scrum framework and an understanding on how to implement it effectively for any software project
• excellent team skills, necessary for the collaboration with the other team members.

Other important soft skills, highlighted by the Scrum Guide are: 

• Highly Motivated
• Proactive
• Self-organized
• Independent
• Responsible
• Intuitive
• Goal-Oriented

Sources: Schwaber and Sutherland, The Scrum Guide; © 2017 SCRUMstudy™. A Guide to the Scrum Body of Knowledge (SBOK™ Guide).