I'm on a project right now that is using the scrum methodology with 2 week sprints. Here's what our team looks like:
- 1 business analyst
- 1 tester
- 1 user experience designer
- 2 developers (1 for the UI and 1 for the back-end processes)
- 1 project manager
In a single sprint, we'll have 1 product backlog item (PBI) to design the UI for a page, another PBI to write the .Net code for the page, and 1 PBI to test the page.
How should these 3 product backlog items be scheduled so that they all get completed by the end of the sprint? Since they are all dependent on each other and require at least 3 members of the team to work together, it seems to me like they each need deadlines in order for them to get done in time.
The scrum master keeps saying that they don't need deadlines because the cross-functional team will take care of it. This hasn't worked in 10+ sprints, though.
Shouldn't the project manager be aware of this critical path and monitor its progress?