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I have a very basic knowledge of Scrum. Please guide me about the following questions:

  1. What is role of the Product Owner in daily Scrum, should PO be a part of this meeting?

  2. In a real world scenario a Product Owner is the person who acts as the customer. Can a team member be nominated as a Proxy of product owner?

  3. Can we say that a Project Manager who directly interacts with the customer is nominated as the proxy of a Product Owner?

  4. When we use term External Stakeholders Engagement, are we referring to a Product Owner or someone else?

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  1. The Product Owner is not a mandatory attendee at the Daily Scrum, which is only for the Development Team. If the Product Owner does turn up, they should not speak or take any active role in the meeting.

  2. A Product Owner reflects the wishes of the stakeholders and is the single decision maker in terms of ordering items on the product backlog. They can appoint a proxy but it's considered a poor practice as you've added a layer of communication and increased the chances that the actual Product Owner might overrule a proxy's decision(s), which negates some of the positive elements of scrum. This could be a huge waste and very harmful to productivity.

  3. There is no role called Project Manager in scrum and best advice is to avoid appointing proxies, where possible.

  4. As point 2 above. The Product Owner reflects the wishes of the stakeholders. They are a central point of reference for both stakeholders and the scrum team.

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    "A Product Owner usually reflects the wishes of the stakeholders" -- correct, but it would be useful to specify that the PO is the single decision maker in terms of priorities: multiple stakeholders have different priorities and his role is to decide the overall priorities. This is what makes a PO different from a stakeholder or a proxy.
    – Sklivvz
    May 9, 2014 at 9:55
  • @Derek Thank you for providing clear insight about the topic. It helped me a lot.
    – Hassan Nisar
    May 9, 2014 at 11:40
  • @Sklivvz : I agree. I've edited the answer to reflect this.
    – Derek Davidson PST CST
    May 9, 2014 at 11:42
  • @HassanNisar : You're very welcome
    – Derek Davidson PST CST
    May 9, 2014 at 11:43
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from the scrum guide scrum guide

The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product and the work of the Development Team. How this is done may vary widely across organizations, Scrum Teams, and individuals.

The Product Owner is the sole person responsible for managing the Product Backlog. Product Backlog management includes:

Clearly expressing Product Backlog items; Ordering the items in the Product Backlog to best achieve goals and missions; Optimizing the value of the work the Development Team performs; Ensuring that the Product Backlog is visible, transparent, and clear to all, and shows what the Scrum Team will work on next; and, Ensuring the Development Team understands items in the Product Backlog to the level needed. The Product Owner may do the above work, or have the Development Team do it. However, the Product Owner remains accountable.

The Product Owner is one person, not a committee. The Product Owner may represent the desires of a committee in the Product Backlog, but those wanting to change a Product Backlog item’s priority must address the Product Owner.

For the Product Owner to succeed, the entire organization must respect his or her decisions. The Product Owner’s decisions are visible in the content and ordering of the Product Backlog. No one is allowed to tell the Development Team to work from a different set of requirements, and the Development Team isn’t allowed to act on what anyone else says.

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