What are the responsibilities of the Product Owner role in Scrum?
The major responsibilities of the Product Owner role in scrum are:
- Get acquainted with the product and clarify the goals, trends, stakeholders, and intentions of stakeholders from/to the product
- To define, together with stakeholders and stakeholders, the product vision Reference: Responsibilities of the Product Owner role in Scrum, https://projectmanagement.wpdevcloud.com/responsibilities-of-the-product-owner-role-in-scrum/
- Creates and maintains the backlog
- Prioritizes the items in the backlog
- Communicates and clarifies product requirements with stakeholders and product stakeholders
- Planning (release management) of phases and releases of parts of the product
- Attend Scrum events when his presence is important (when starting a sprint, possibly when demonstrating developed parts of the product)
- Indicate Scrum Master support and assistance when needed
- To monitor the implementation of the project – according to the specified quality and time limits, budget.
Skills and qualities of the Product Owner
The most important thing is that the Product Owner knows the product to be developed, as well as the vision and intentions of the stakeholders about the product. According to The Product Owner role in Scrum and their responsibilities, by BVOP.org It is also important that the Product Owner is aware of your role in the Scrum team and understands that there is an essential ‘link’ between the development team and stakeholders and stakeholders. He also ‘activates’ and initiates the stakeholders and external consultants of the project, as well as the classic management in the organization (technical managers, advertising managers, various other managers, and directors), in case there is a problem with the project or requirements need to be specified and quality. If the problems are higher (for example, budget, if the organization is larger or the product is more comprehensive and is divided into several teams and Scaled Agile is used). Reference: What makes a good Product Owner and what do they do? Scrum Time Magazine (ScrumTime.org)
The Product Owner needs to be clear and open about their goals
As with all other roles in Scrum, the Product Owner needs to be clear and open about their goals and the goals of the project. Must be able to talk and persuade all participants in the team and outside the team.
The Product Owner must be proactive and critical of the project activities and the results achieved (and not yet achieved). Reference: Product Owner role in Scrum and real problem situations https://www.vbprojects.org/product-owner-role-in-scrum-and-real-problem-situations/ They must be interested and ambitious in achieving good and timely results and better qualities. He must observe the agreed processes, roles, and events in Scrum. He has to look at things in detail, but he also understands the slightly more general picture of the product. He needs to know who the users/customers are and how they work or would work with the product to decide what to emphasize in his requirements for the development team.
Last but not least, the Product Owner must take into account the capabilities and possible desires of the development team and monitor the workload and progress regarding the tasks performed. [Source: The Product Owner role in Scrum, projectmanagement.cloudaccess.host] Must respect Scrum Master’s decisions and suggestions regarding agreed practices or processes.
Business Value for users and stakeholders
What is the difference between the value to consumers of a product and the value of the product for its owners?
The difference is not big, everything ultimately comes down to some profit – economic, social, and even emotional benefits. For the participants in the development team, the benefit is the satisfaction from the work done and the striving for fewer mistakes, as well as the reduction of the work, purely quantitatively.
The value for consumers of a product lies in the convenience and usability of the product they receive. If it is software, it should help them in their work, such as reducing the time to execute requests, being easy and intuitive, so that requests can be executed more correctly and faster.
Both the Product Manager and Product Owner provide business value. Period. Since the PO in not exactly PM you may need to read about the product manager as well.
The value of the product for the Product Owner is that all of the above can be synthesized and written ‘in words’ (not just text, as mentioned above, but figuratively speaking), to facilitate the work of the development team, testers, and to facilitate the processes of task execution (or at least not to interfere with the processes), also helping Scrum Master on planning. This is business value – ie. not only monetary value but also everything on which the work and performance of the task are based and the personal qualities that are developed by each participant as a result of the performance or work on the tasks.
How often should the Product Owner role guide the Development team?
As often as necessary or asked to do so. However, it should be clarified that Scrum assumes that the Product Owner cannot interfere with technical development guidelines or how to get the job done in a purely practical way. Very often Product Owner does not qualify for this. Original idea: Scrum Master related situations concerning Product Owner, Development Team, and managers
In my view, however, it must be borne in mind that, if he is explicitly asked for help, he should not be deprived of this opportunity. Apparently, after being asked for help, the development team and Product Owner can’t make a decision or don’t know what to do.
However, the team works together and the goal is common. If the Product Owner cannot help, it can at least discuss the stakeholder issue and decide on that basis.
What does User Stories prioritization mean?
This means that the tasks in the backlog are ranked in order of importance, with the most important and urgent ones positioned at the top. Prioritization is not an easy task and depends on the familiarity and subjective assessment of the Product Owner about the product, the vision for its development, and the intentions of the stakeholders. It is based on preliminary and purposeful discussions with stakeholders and stakeholders, as well as the Product Owner’s sense and understanding of the field in which the product will be used and its level of criticality about product quality.
Why should the Product Owner role prioritize work?
Because no one else in the Scrum team has a common view of the product vision and at the same time the managerial ability to embody stakeholder ideas into user stories, combining them with good planning and balancing the resources available to the project. Product Owner must be familiar with the product and the goals of the product, but also have the qualities to be a manager – to have time, budget, and planning.
Why can stakeholders stop working on a product when, in terms of planned work, the product is not ready yet?
It is possible to stop it because the product they received meets the needs of the moment (even if there are tasks that have not yet been completed).
Based on the fact that a user story or task can be anything – from something very basic and important to ideas and even plans for product development, we can conclude that not all of this is ‘equally important’. If the stakeholders at one point consider that they have received everything they want, then the project can be completed quite easily. Reference: Scrum example team and projects scenarios
Logically to the above – it is possible to stop it if the other product backlog items do not contribute to the business value of the product.
It is possible to stop it in case of major changes independent of them – for example, lack of budget or change in the organizational structure of the company – reduction and merger of departments and redistribution of budget and projects.