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In Agile Scrum, self-organization is a fundamental principle that empowers teams to independently manage their work processes and make decisions collaboratively. Rather than relying on top-down directives, team members take ownership of their tasks, determining how best to achieve their goals within the framework of the project. Self-organizing teams are adept at adapting to change, allocating resources efficiently, and resolving challenges autonomously. This approach fosters creativity, accountability, and a sense of ownership among team members, leading to greater productivity and innovation. By embracing self-organization, Agile Scrum teams maximize their effectiveness in delivering high-quality outcomes while continuously improving their processes.

Self-Organizing can be defined as team of motivated Individuals working towards the achievement of a specific goal, self-motivated and have the ability and authority to make decisions and are open to changing demands.

Scrum defines employees as self-motivated group or team who seek to accept greater responsibility. So, they deliver much greater value when self-organized. They pull work for themselves rather than waiting for some on to assign work for them, thus creating a greater sense of commitment and ownership. They tend to manage their whole work as a group and enhance their skills continuously.

Benefits of Self-organization

In order to create a successful self-organizing team, it should consist of four essential components. They are: Team Buy-in, Motivation, Innovation and Creative approach, and selecting the best approach..

Self-organization does not mean that team members are allowed to act in any manner that they want to. Once the Project Vision is defined in the Create Project Vision process, the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Scrum Team get identified. Also, the Scrum Core Team itself works very closely with relevant business stakeholder(s) for refining requirements better as they go through the Develop Epic(s) and Create User Stories process. Team expertise is used to assess the inputs needed to execute the planned work of the project. This judgment and expertise are applied to all technical and management aspects of the project during the Create Deliverables process.

Although prioritization is primarily done by the Product Owner who represents the Voice of Customer, the self-organized Scrum Team is involved in task breakdown and estimation during the Identify Tasks and Estimate Tasks processes. During these processes, each team member is responsible for determining what work he or she will be doing. The Scrum Team also helps the Product Owner identify risks and dependencies. During the execution of a Sprint, if team members need any help with completing their tasks, Scrum addresses this through the regular interaction mandatory with the Daily Standup Meetings. The Scrum Team itself interacts with other teams through the Scrum of Scrums (SoS) Meetings and can look for additional guidance as required from the Scrum Guidance Body.

Finally, the Scrum Team and Scrum Master work closely to demonstrate the product increment created during the Sprint in the Demonstrate and Validate Sprint process where properly completed deliverables are accepted. Since the deliverables are potentially shippable, (and the Prioritized Product Backlog is prioritized by User Stories in the order of value created by them), the Product Owner and the customer can clearly visualize and articulate the value being created after every Sprint; and Scrum Teams in turn have the satisfaction of seeing their hard work being accepted by the customer and other business stakeholders.