Having the right people in the right place is not a new concept. In football, you will never see a short, 100-pound player on the offensive line. Since their job is to block the massive athletes trying to sack the quarterback, they do not have what it takes to be successful in that position (and will get crushed). Since the Scrum methodology requires additional skills than a basic software developer, you will need to put together your Scrum team carefully, as successful Scrum team builder Scott Bowen attests.

As a consultant, we’ve seen groups that have had various challenges or failures with Scrum. There are several reasons why a Scrum team fails or people struggle working within the Scrum methodology. Team or personnel failures usually come from when environmental factors aren’t present to allow Scrum to be successful.

It starts with putting the team together. People who work in a Scrum environment often have to have a different skillset than what is needed in other development methods. Since communication and feedback is vital in the Scrum environment, successful team members tend to have a lot of the soft skills that will allow the collaboration to happen. They need to be able to work together with open communication and to function in an open environment where there’s continual feedback and adaptation.

You can have the best project managers, data and equipment in the world, but if you don’t have the right people working together and willing to accept feedback, your Scrum project will suffer.

Whether it’s football or Scrum software development, if you have someone out of position, it can really affect if you win or lose, or build a successful product or not. What steps have you taken to put the right people on your team?