3.4. Respect
As self-organizing teams, we cannot do without respect for each other, in order to cultivate an engaged, productive, and humane environment for all. The scrum framework includes elements that help promote respect:
- The entire development team attends sprint planning, the sprint review, and the sprint retrospective. This promotes respect for each role, the accountabilities, and diverse perspectives.
- The development team is cross-functional, which means as a whole it has all of the skills necessary to deliver a Done product increment. This promotes respect for everyone’s experiences, skills, and ideas, as well as learning and growth.
- The development team owns the sprint backlog. Since they are the ones doing the work, they decide how much they can do in a sprint and how to do the work. This demonstrates respect for their knowledge and skills, as well as respect for working at a sustainable pace.
- By only reviewing a Done product in a sprint review, we bring transparency to our true progress. This demonstrates respect for our stakeholders.
- A product owner seeks input from, collaborates with, and sets realistic expectations for stakeholders. This is another demonstration of respect for stakeholders.
- The scrum master’s focus is on the health of the development team and the effective use of scrum. Having a role that focuses on teaching, facilitating, and coaching demonstrates a respect for people and teams and their capacity for growth.
- Scrum’s focus on delivering value shows respect to our organization by not spending money on low value features or things that may never be used.
- Having a potentially releasable increment by the end of the sprint shows respect to our organization by not forcing more investment to realize value. It gives the organization the flexibility to make investment decisions.
