Strengthening Self-Organizing Cross-Functional Scrum Team

A cross-functional team is a group of individuals with diverse functional expertise working toward a shared objective.

According to the Scrum Guide, a cross-functional team is a team that is organized around a product, a defined portion of a product, a service, or a customer value stream, and must include all competencies needed to accomplish their work without depending on others that are not part of the team.

What are the challenges of establishing such a self-organized cross-functional scrum team?

a) Silos mentality( BA, dev, test, Support )

b) Communication issue( BA, dev, test, Support )

c) Competency issue( BA, dev, test, Support )

d) Alignment issues( BA, dev, test, Support )

e) Conflicts are very high ( BA, dev, test, Support )

f) Ownership and commitment challenges( BA, dev, test, Support )

g) Mindset issue ( BA, dev, test, Support )

h) Collaboration issues ( BA, dev, test, Support )

i) Blame each other

j) Trust deficit, etc

How do we minimize these? Any structural approach we have to consider?

Look at any team and we will see a mixture of behaviors and personalities. Sometimes the individuals in a team can be complete opposites of each other and there will be conflicts; Other times there will be synergy in the team.

The ‘process’ part of the team will be very dependent on the behavior preferences that team members display.

The management psychologist Dr. Meredith Belbin was one of the first people formally to identify the different roles that people play in teams.

He recognized that in teams there are individuals who take action-oriented roles.

Some team members are more people-focused and others more cerebral.

Effective teams are made up of different types of people and they consist of different types of roles.


The mix of role types that play in a team determines their effectiveness.

These roles are

Shaper, Coordinator, Plant, Resource Investigator, Monitor Evaluator, Specialist, teamworker, Implementer, Completer Finisher

Although there are nine team roles, this doesn’t mean that a team needs nine individuals in it to be effective. Individuals will tend to have more than one preferred team role, so will generally occupy more than one role in the team.

When we look for a cross-functional self-organized high-performance scrum team, which evolves after a long cycle of the experiential exploration, we require to look at these 3 factors how effectively it has been matured.

When we recruit team members, if we can balance with these 3 factors, it would be advantageous for them to grow into a high-performance team, as the team will be apt to resolve any challenges they come across.

When I encounter the best scrum teams, I could certainly locate the traces of all these roles in a team.

I could able to trace who is Plant? who is matching the role of coordinator? etc. I start improving if these roles are missing.

When we start coaching, we also nurture these roles, based on what are the gaps, and what can be done to minimize those gaps.

This is a very good structure provided to structurally do team coaching and look for an opportunity.

All the challenges listed initially will slowly resolve when we have all these 9 roles developed and depicted with the scrum team.

We mostly look for a Scrum Master who is having a mixture of all these roles

[ A ‘teamworker’ is generally co-operative, easy to get along with, perceptive, and diplomatic. They are good listeners and are able to smooth over areas of friction within the team. They help keep the team together, particularly during times of stress or pressure.

A ‘shaper’ likes to challenge and drive things forward, enjoying the pressure and the reward of overcoming obstacles. They are able to identify patterns in discussions and in work undertaken and use this to push for change.

A ‘resource investigator’ is likely to be enthusiastic and charismatic, communicating well with others. They are able to explore opportunities, develop contacts, and instigate relationships.

The ‘implementer’ is reliable and well-disciplined, often conservative, and efficient at getting the job done. The implementer is able to reliably turn ideas into practical actions, and strategies into defined and manageable tasks.

People who fulfill the co-ordinator role are generally confident and responsible. They functionwell as a chairperson, helping to clarify goals and establish priorities. They encourage others to make decisions by delegating appropriately. ]