The Scrum Team is the fundamental unit of Scrum, made up of one Scrum Master, one Product Owner and Developers. It is accountable for creating a valuable, useful
Increment every Sprint, and for all product-related activities. Stakeholder
collaboration, verification, maintenance, operation, experimentation, research
and development.
Size and structure
Typically ten or fewer people. Smaller teams communicate better and are more
productive; if a team grows past the point where it stays cohesive, the Guide
suggests reorganising into multiple Scrum Teams. Those teams share one Product
Goal, one Product Backlog and one Product Owner.
No sub-teams, no hierarchies
The three accountabilities are roles within a single team, not layers above it.
The Product Owner does not manage the Developers, and the Scrum Master does not
manage either. This is one of the most frequently tested points in the domain,
usually presented as a scenario where one accountability directs another.
What the team is accountable for
Creating a valuable, useful Increment every Sprint, and being self-managing,
deciding internally who does what, when and how. That accountability is
collective; the framework does not assign individual ownership of tasks.
Common misconceptions
“The Product Owner and Scrum Master sit outside the Developers' team.”
All three accountabilities are inside one Scrum Team. The 2020 Guide removed the separate "Development Team" precisely to make that single unit explicit.
“A Scrum Team can be split into a design sub-team and a build sub-team.”
There are no sub-teams within a Scrum Team. Where several teams work on one product, each is a whole Scrum Team sharing one Product Goal, one Product Backlog and one Product Owner.
“Ten people is a hard upper limit.”
The Guide says typically 10 or fewer. If a team becomes too large, it should consider reorganising into multiple cohesive Scrum Teams. Still sharing one Product Goal, Product Backlog and Product Owner.
2 questions test this concept
An organisation has a Scrum Team of eighteen people working on one product, and the Daily Scrum regularly runs to forty minutes. What does the Scrum Guide say about team size, and what is the correct reading of this situation?
AScrum Teams are typically ten or fewer people, and if a team grows too large it should consider reorganising into multiple cohesive Scrum Teams that share the same Product Goal, Product Backlog and Product Owner.
BThe maximum permitted team size is nine developers plus the Product Owner and Scrum Master, so this team is in violation.
CTeam size is unconstrained, and the Daily Scrum should simply be extended to fit the number of people.
DThe team should split into two teams, each with its own Product Backlog and Product Owner.