What are the Scrum Roles and Responsibilities? The Product Owner is part of the Scrum Team. They are chosen because of their extensive understanding of the Business. This knowledge should be in the areas of the Development effort, or the Product. While it can be argued that the Scrum Master is a part-time Role in any Agile Project, it is typically understood that the Product Owner has a full-time involvement to the Project.

The Product Owner has an essential Role in any Agile Development Project. They both Manage Stakeholder expectations and support the Team in their mission. The Product Owner takes the role of key Stakeholder within the Team. They champion the Requirements of all the Business Stakeholders and representing them. The Product Owner must be a good Communicator. They need to keep business Stakeholders notified of the progress of the Development Team. The Product Owner is an authority on the Product for the Scrum Team.

Scrum Roles and Responsibilities – The Product Owner.

The Product Owner is the “go-to person” for the Scrum Team members. They are involved in writing the User Stories, and speak to the relevant Users. First of all, they determine whether a User Story or an Epic needs to be split, and into what components. The Product Owner prioritises User Stories within the Backlog. There are several techniques applied to prioritise Stories, which we will discuss in another article. The thinking behind this Prioritisation is that the most critical components of the Product will be Developed first. This development is completed in a series of Sprints. If the Project runs out of time or budget, the “nice-to-haves” are taken Out of the Project Scope.

The Product Owner specifies “Done”.

The Product Owner has the final say in Release Management. On the road to Developing the end product, there are 3 stages of approval or rejection of the Deliverables:-.

• ‘Conditions of Satisfaction’: These are qualities that specify, in User terms, what would deliver an effective outcome and guarantee Customer Satisfaction, at User Story level.
• ‘Acceptance Criteria’: These are exact definitions of the conditions of Satisfaction that will be used to evaluate whether the Sprint is complete (a Sprint normally includes several User Stories).
• ‘Definition of Done’: It is the Product Owner who will identify whether all the Acceptance Criteria have been fulfilled and whether the Sprint is “Done”. Once a Sprint is Done, it is complete and will not undergo any modifications or revisions

Scrum Roles and Responsibilities – The Sprint.

The Product Owner has both an supportive and an arm’s length relationship with the Development Team. While they will participate in Workshops that Refine User Stories and will discuss the Product Backlog in the Sprint Planning Meeting for the next Sprint, their involvement in the Sprint is limited. For instance, while they will describe the highest Priority User Stories in a Sprint Planning Meeting, it is the Development Team who will decide which Stories will be Accepted into the Sprint.

Once the Sprint has been defined, the Product Owner must refrain from requesting any Changes to the User Stories. They do, however, have the authority to cancel a Sprint if required. There is some debate whether the Product Owner should be at Sprint Stand-Up Meetings. The answer is “yes” but as an observer, not a participant. If the 15-minute meeting is being held correctly, the Product Owner would not have an opportunity to speak.

We found these books great for finding out more information on Agile Scrum:

What the Effective Product Owner needs to Succeed.

The Product Owner plays a pivotal Role in ensuring Project success by:-.

• Ensuring that all important Stakeholder needs are described and satisfied.
• Assuming stewardship of the Product Backlog and its contents.
• Understanding what is vital and what is not, and Prioritizing the contents of the Product Backlog appropriately.
• Determining where and how Epics and User Stories might require splitting so they can be included in a Sprint.
• Assisting in Planning for the next Sprint by describing the top priority User Stories to the Team. The Development Team choose what goes into the Sprint.
• Keeping abreast of the progress of a Sprint.
• Changing and even cancelling a Sprint when needed. Changes to a User Story ought to not happen once it is in a Sprint.
• Validating that the Acceptance Criteria have actually been met and that a User Story is complete. The Product Owner decides when Work is “Done”. Simply put, the Product Owner is the Release Manager for the Project.

What can Cause the Product Manager to Fail?

The Product Owner has such a diverse job with many responsibilities. To assist them in obtaining Project success, the Company should ensure that these Principles are applied:

• Give the Product Owner adequate authority. They need to have the power to do the task.
• Do not overload the Product Owner. Do not expect the Product Owner to Work full-time on the Agile Project and still perform their regular jobs. They will become worn out and experience burnout.
• The Product Owner becomes part of the Team up until the end of the Project. They should be located in the same area as the rest of the Scrum Team. This enables them to keep up with the Project.
• There is just one Product Owner, not a board of Product Owners. If the Project is of such magnitude that it can not be done by one person, additional resources who report to the Product Owner can be brought into the Project.
• There is a window of opportunity to make Changes to User Stories. Once a User Story has been added to a Sprint, it should not be modified. Unless the Project will be critically affected.

If these recommendations are followed, your Product Owner will have adequate power to make choices, assist the Team, and carry out as the essential Stakeholder.