The quality of the software is a responsibility of the entire team. The Product Owner is responsible for building the right thing. Ensuring we build the thing right is the main responsibility of the development team. Scrum Masters serve a key role in achieving both aspects. A Scrum Master serves the team by coaching members in self-management and cross-functionality, helping them focus on creating high-value increments, and removing impediments. Sounds great, and abstract, so let us dive in with some practical examples. 

Better ways to refine work 

Refinements are meant for learning and clarifying the team’s understanding of what they are asked to build. The more successful the team is in reaching this shared understanding, the better the delivery of the feature will be.  

it is not the domain expert’s knowledge that goes into production, it is the developer’s assumption of that knowledge that goes into production 

– Alberto Brandolini 

The methods used to refine work can be highly influential in gleaning this shared understanding. Most refinements will have a form of feature presentation, followed by some Q&A between the team. Visuals and wireframes help to improve understanding. However, for some processes this simply will not work: administrative processes, for example. We love to use visual collaboration methods for this kind of work. 

Want to know more? Read the full blog at Influencing software quality as a Scrum Master – Qxperts