I agree. These roles are essential. But for the QA lead, I would say that QA people need to create automated end-to-end feature level or use case level tests that the developers can run. Not story level tests — use case level, which exercise the entire product to perform functions that users do, to see that they can actually perform those functions.
Yes, a PM is needed in order to provide the SM with enough clout to meet with leadership to get rules changed. Imagine you want to get the organization to be more DevOps-like, and you want to empower the team to maintain their own deployment template. If you try to meet with the head of Whoever who oversees deployment templates, they will say “I have half an hour next month” and when you finally meet with them they will say, “Sorry but that is our rule” — but if your manager calls them and makes a stink, they might bend; or your manager can go up the chain and put pressure in the right place. Managers are very useful in big organizations.
The business analyst role is essential too. Who is going to write the BDD gherkin test specs? — the PO? I don’t think so. A real PO has operational responsibility — they are probably manager of some business function — and they might spend two hours each day with the teams (plural) but they don’t have time to write the kind of detailed and high coverage gherkin specs that are needed. A programmer? I don’t think so — they are not of the right mindset and don’t know the business requirements: you need someone who is immersed in the business to write functional gherkin specs. The analyst should sit with the team, and be integrated, but they work for the PO.
Team lead? Absolutely. Someone has to be thinking end-to-end all the time, as their primary job. Otherwise the pipeline doesn’t improve and critical things fall through the crack. A good team lead is looking at people’s code, initiating discussions about nagging issues that have gone unaddressed, and advocating for the developers so they get what they need.
A UI/UX designer? Absolutely — probably on a part time basis, as an extended team member. But if you want a system that is actually usable, you better have that person.
I know that these roles are not in Scrum, and the Scrum community claims that you don’t need these things, but they are wrong. I have helped many programs adopt DevOps methods and these roles are essential. The roles need to operate in an Agile manner — not silos or throwing things over the wall — but they need to exist. Unless you are building something little and inconsequential. And by the way, companies like Amazon and Google have roles like this — they don’t use the Scrum model.
