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Scrum Team Size

The basics of Scrum can be easy but implementing them and succeeding with Scrum can be infinitely harder. Scrum Teams need to be big enough to get things done, but small enough to allow for communication and move quickly.

The Scrum Team has three roles that make up the structure of the team, the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team. When deciding how large a team should be, the development team is where the numbers will increase or decrease. There will always be one Scrum Master and one Product Owner – teams shouldn’t have more than one Product Owner.

Choosing how many people are needed for a scrum team can seem like a daunting task for Scrum Masters. Scrum Masters guide the team in using Scrum and ensure that the team is working in its best way by serving the team. There isn’t any rigid template that you have to follow when creating a Scrum Team, however, there is some general advice to help out.

A common recommendation is that Scrum Teams should be seven people, plus or minus two. While recommendations allow for flexibility in building your team, they can be hard to implement when deciding how many people to include. As a Scrum Master, you will be tasked with ensuring the team performs at its peak. If a team is too big or too small it can affect the way you do your job.  So what size should a Scrum Team be?

Recommended Further Reading

The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course:

Section 2: Using the Agile Manifesto to Deliver Change

Section 3: The 12 Agile Principles

Section 4: The Agile Fundamentals

Section 5: The Declaration of Interdependence

Section 6: Agile Development Frameworks

Section 7: Introduction to Scrum

Section 8: Scrum Projects

Section 9: Scrum Project Roles

Section 10: Meet the Scrum Team

Section 11: Building the Scrum Team

Section 12: Scrum in Projects, Programs & Portfolios

Section 13: How to Manage an Agile Project

Section 14: Leadership Styles

Section 15: The Agile Project Life-cycle

Section 16: Business Justification with Agile

Section 17: Calculating the Benefits With Agile

Section 18: Quality in Agile

Section 19: Acceptance Criteria and the Prioritised Product Backlog

Section 20: Quality Management in Scrum

Section 21: Change in Scrum

Section 22: Integrating Change in Scrum

Section 23: Managing Change in Scrum

Section 24: Risk in Scrum

Section 25: Risk Assessment Techniques

Section 26: Initiating an Agile Project

Section 27: Forming the Scrum Team

Section 28: Epics and Personas

Section 29: Creating the Prioritised Product Backlog

Section 30: Conduct Release Planning

Section 31: The Project Business Case

Section 32: Planning in Scrum

Section 33: Scrum Boards

Section 34: Sprint Planning

Section 35: User Stories

Section 36: User Stories and Tasks

Section 37: The Sprint Backlog

Section 38: Implementation of Scrum

Section 39: The Daily Scrum

Section 40: The Product Backlog

Section 41: Scrum Charts

Section 42: Review and Retrospective

Section 43: Scrum of Scrums

Section 44: Validating a Sprint

Section 45: Retrospective Sprint

Section 46: Releasing the Product

Section 47: Project Retrospective

Section 48: The Communication Plan

Section 49: Formal Business Sign-off

Section 50: Scaling Scrum

Section 51: Stakeholders

Section 52: Programs and Portfolios

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