Inside the Scrum Team, including the Product Owner and the ScrumMaster, no individual should report to any other individual.  The team reporting structure should be flat.  This does not necessarily mean that all Team Members are peers in the org chart.  For example, one team member could be quite senior, and another quite junior.  However, for the Scrum principle of self-organization to work effectively, individual Team Members should have no concern about what their “boss” wants them to do.  Instead, within the Scrum Team, there should be a completely safe environment for individuals to volunteer for tasks, raise obstacles, provide candid feedback to any other Team Member, and have a mutual sense of commitment to the work of the team.  If the Scrum Team is absent of reporting relationships then it has a much higher chance of becoming a high-performance team.  If there are reporting relationships within the Scrum Team there are often significant obstacles to full openness and self-organization and this, in turn, will significantly hamper the performance of the team.

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