Accountable/Accountability

[uh-koun-tuh-buh l / uh-koun-tuh-bil-i-tee]

Definition of Accountable/Accountability

An accountable person is a person who is ultimately answerable for an activity or decision; the accountable person can be held to account for the results of the activity or the making of the decision. There can only be one person accountable for any particular activity or decision. A person is always accountable for their commitments. (Compare to Responsible)

See:

Commitment, One of the least understood of the Scrum Values; the Team commits to living their Values and doing their due diligence to get Stories “Done;” An obligation a person has...
Responsible Responsible people are the individual(s) who actually do the work; responsibility can be shared. The degree of responsibility is determined by the person with the “Accountability”; and Responsibility is often...

Examples

There can only be one person accountable for any particular activity or decision.

The Product Owner is a Team Member and is accountable for the Team’s Results to the Business and Stakeholders; the Product Owner works with the Team constantly (at least three hours a day is my recommended practice), so there is no need for a Proxy.

Discussion

The Product Owner Must Be Accountable First of all, it’s easy to show that the Team’s Product Owner must be accountable for the Team’s Results/Product. Since, according to Scrum, no one is allowed to modify or change the Product Owner’s priorities by talking to the Team, the Product Owner is the only person who can be held to account for what gets built. When Stakeholders want to modify the Team’s priorities, they must go through the Product Owner.  This is the very definition of accountability, that someone is accountable if (and only if) that person can be ‘held to account.’ It is clear that the Product Owner is accountable to the Stakeholders for the ultimate priorities that go to the Team, and thus for the value of what the Team builds.

External Sources

The 6 Scrum Values Your Team Needs To Excel

Team Values

Cite This Term

"Accountable/Accountability" ScrumDictionary.com. Accessed Apr 20, 2024. https://scrumdictionary.com/term/accountable-accountability/.