More than Code: Contributions in Scrum Software Engineering Teams

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive model capturing diverse contributions of Scrum team members, emphasizing non-technical efforts to enhance visibility, retrospection, and team dynamics in Agile software development.

Contribution

It presents a novel model that includes all Scrum roles and types of contributions, extending beyond technical work to improve team understanding and reflection.

Findings

Model improves visibility of team contributions

Supports team retrospection and discussion

Includes non-technical contributions in Scrum teams

Abstract

Motivated and competent team members are a vital part of Agile Software development and make or break any project's success. Motivation is fostered by continuous progress and recognition of efforts. These concepts are founding pillars of the Scrum methodology, which focuses on self-organizing teams. The types of contributions Scrum development team members make to a project's progress are not only technical. However, a comprehensive model comprising the varied contributions in modern software engineering teams is not yet established. We propose a model that incorporates contributions of all Scrum roles, explicitly including those which are not directly related to project artifacts. It improves the visibility of performed tasks, acts as a starting point for team retrospection, and serves as a foundation for discussion in the research community.