What is the Development Team's role in Scrum?
Answer
In the 2020 Scrum Guide, the development team is called simply the Developers — skilled professionals who create the Increment. Key characteristics: (1) Self-managing — internally decide who does what, when, and how. No one (not even the Scrum Master) tells them how to turn backlog items into increments; (2) Cross-functional — collectively have all skills necessary to create value each Sprint (design, development, testing, DevOps); (3) Accountable together — success and failure belong to the whole team, not individuals; (4) 3–9 members — small enough for agility, large enough to complete significant work. Fewer than 3 lacks cross-functionality; more than 9 requires too much coordination; (5) No sub-teams or titles — everyone is a "Developer" regardless of specialization; (6) Pull work — select Sprint Backlog items themselves during Sprint Planning based on capacity and the Sprint Goal.