8. The Team

Scrum’s productivity stems from doing the right things first and doing those things very effectively. The Product Owner queues up the right work by prioritizing the Product Backlog. How does the Team maximize its productivity, though? Assuming that lines of code per day or function points per person-month are good productivity measurements, who tells the Team how to maximize them? In Scrum, the Team figures out how to maximize its productivity itself; the job of planning and executing the work belongs solely to the Team. The ScrumMaster and others can guide, advise, and inform the Team, but it is the Team’s responsibility to manage itself.

At the heart of the solution is the Team working without interruption for the 30-day Sprint. Having selected the Product Backlog for a Sprint, the Team has mutually committed to turning it into an increment of potentially shippable product increment in 30 calendar days. Once the Team makes this commitment, the clock starts ticking. The Sprint is a time-box within which the Team does whatever is necessary to meet its commitment. At the end of the Sprint, the Team demonstrates the working functionality to the Product Owner.