Why did you use Roles again?

[pedicurus]

Dear @ViralGoodAgile and @rjocham

I was translating the section of Purpose of the Scrum Guide Expansion Pack, I saw "Roles" in the 4th paragraph. I got surprised. Because the term of "Roles" has been removed and replaced with "Accountablities" since the Scrum Guide 2020 published. Then lots of articles has been generated why the change happened in Scrum.org. As it is mentioned that the Scrum Guide Expansion Pack was aligned with the Scrum Guide, I wouldn't expect to see it. Can you explain why you use Roles again?

Thanks

[MrHinsh]

@ViralGoodAgile, @rjocham

[ViralGoodAgile]

Hi, @pedicurus - when we added Stakeholder, we didn't feel we could make it an accountability. We felt that 'role' was better for now. We still laid out expectations.

While we appreciate the accountable nature of the Scrum Master (SM), Product Owner (PO), and Product Developers (PDs), we didn't like our experience that Scrum Masters and Product Owners are often filled by more than one person. The Scrum Guide already states that the Product Owner should be one person per product, and that is not the case in most contexts. In the multi-Scrum-Team section, we discuss coherence around the number of Product Backlogs, and by inference, Product Owners.

However, I have particularly experienced misunderstood Scrum Master behavior with part-time Scrum Masters who prioritize career development in other areas over Scrum Mastery; therefore, part-timers tend to do what important people expect them to do rather than what they should do.

Having three accountabilities and a role seemed awkward. Yet we still liked accountability. So we say SM, PO, PD, and SH are roles, but the only accountabilities are in the Scrum Team, namely SM, PO, and PD.

Let me know if you have further questions.

[pedicurus]

Thanks, @ViralGoodAgile, for your clear answer—it makes sense. It would be helpful if you could share the rationale behind each notable change in the pack compared to the guide. I've seen several impactful LinkedIn posts criticizing the expansion pack for contradicting the guide—two of them focused on Roles. Sharing the reasoning behind these changes could help counteract the negative perceptions and support the pack’s credibility.

[ViralGoodAgile]

@pedicurus - we marked this discussion as a trigger for an update in the September 2025 version. Thank you for your contribution.

[pedicurus]

My pleasure, Sir.