Questions tagged [product-owner]

The product owner represents the stakeholders and is the voice of the customer. He or she is accountable for ensuring that the team delivers value to the business.

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14 answers
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Can a Product Owner be a developer in Scrum?

Can a Product Owner be a developer in Scrum? In theory, yes, but is it recommended by Scrum?
Bastien Vandamme's user avatar
22 votes
12 answers
10k views

How to motivate a team when you have nothing to offer but equity?

I recently got into the whole startup scene, and I was hired as CTO for an early-stage startup. I've got a fair bit of engineering experience, but when it comes to management, I'd definitely be in the ...
Sergey Yakovlev's user avatar
21 votes
10 answers
6k views

Help - Technical team does not want to work in agile way

I am a Product Owner on a Scrum Team whose developers do not want to embrace work in an agile, incremental fashion. Simple example: the customer currently has to contact us to create users each time ...
ChrisS's user avatar
  • 309
19 votes
7 answers
19k views

Who does a product owner typically report to?

I'm trying to understand better how scrum teams fit into actual organizations. I understand that Scrum is only concerned with the structure of the scrum team - I'm just looking for some examples here ...
David Kennell's user avatar
16 votes
6 answers
33k views

Is the Product Owner allowed to be at the Daily Scrum event?

Throughout the Scrum Open Assessments there often appears a question about who must attend to the Daily Scrum event. This is always correctly answered by saying that only the Development Team is ...
aef's user avatar
  • 263
16 votes
3 answers
8k views

In an agile consultancy, is the Client the Product Owner?

I'm interested in understanding how agile project management differs between a single product-focused team and a digital agency or software development consulting firm. For starters, in a situation ...
mardlin's user avatar
  • 680
14 votes
8 answers
4k views

Should the Product Owner be from our organization or the company we are contracting with?

We're a governmental organization and we're contracting with software companies to implement our projects. We're adapting the Scrum framework. Question: Should the Product Owner be from our ...
askm's user avatar
  • 143
14 votes
4 answers
12k views

In Scrum, is a Scrum Master position higher than a Product Owner?

In Scrum, is a Scrum Master position higher than a Product Owner, in terms of organizational hierarchy? At work, traditional organizational charts are a must; how are Scrum Masters and Product Owners ...
regularslasher's user avatar
14 votes
10 answers
3k views

What does a Product Owner do if they disagree with the CEO's direction on product strategy?

What can, and should, a Product Owner / Product Manager do if the CEO has mandated that the team builds something which the Product Owner feels is not in the best interests of the customer? Aside from ...
Ravarro's user avatar
  • 360
14 votes
8 answers
6k views

Should Product Owner be present on all retrospectives?

As a scrum master I will join new development team. Some additional information about environment: The team works iteratively, but they don't do any retrospectives, Previous scrum master (I'd ...
Bartek Kobyłecki's user avatar
14 votes
4 answers
4k views

Should the Product Owner dictate what info the UI needs to display?

I hope someone can help me understand one part of the role of the Product Owner (PO). In my company, we have a PO that is responsible for the Product Backlogs of all our products. I work as a UX ...
A designer's user avatar
14 votes
5 answers
3k views

Product Owner is requesting a "confidence check" for reaching the MVP - How to in a Scrum project?

We're in a quite complex software engineering project with lots of unknowns due to new technologies involved that the Team has never applied nor have comparable experience. Due to these risks the ...
Andre Meier's user avatar
14 votes
4 answers
1k views

Product Owner depending too much on the team

I am a Scrum Master for two different teams. The product owner of one of the teams left recently, so we have a new product owner. The team is fairly experienced with the product. Since the product ...
ramu's user avatar
  • 671
14 votes
4 answers
2k views

Managing a Product Owner in a not-yet-agile organization

When my company was acquired, my 20-person development team gained a Product Owner who is energetic, engaged, and extremely idealistic. While many of the programmers on our team are familiar with ...
Linda Schmandt's user avatar
13 votes
4 answers
3k views

How can we register the technical debt in Scrum?

Scrum emphasizes that all members of the team must know the technical debt of the product. But sometimes, this debt is not tangible as a simple to-do list. Should we register it as another task in the ...
Josbel Luna's user avatar
13 votes
5 answers
2k views

Conflict between priorities and skillsets in the backlog

So we have a very diligent PO who does a good job of prioritising the User Stories in the backlog when it comes to planning. Much of the work is highly specialised though, and - as well as being Scrum ...
Julian Gold's user avatar
13 votes
7 answers
14k views

Who truly prioritizes the product backlog? The Product Owner or Team?

I keep reading that during Product Backlog Grooming the development team meets with the PM and the Product Owner and as a team prioritizes the features. Is it ultimately the Product Owner who decides ...
Sam's user avatar
  • 417
13 votes
2 answers
485 views

Product Owners- Tips for engaging non-Engineering in the agile process

From my experience, in mid to large size software companies, agile most often grows out of the eningeering organization. Either grass roots up, from the team level, or exec sponsored from the ...
Joel Bancroft-Connors's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
283 views

Managing a project with the Boss/Owner as a Development Team Member

A friend of mine has come up with a great idea for a product. He has gathered up a group of friends, who think the idea rocks, and is well on the way to convincing them(/us) to donate 16 hours/week ...
Frames Catherine White's user avatar
11 votes
5 answers
2k views

What to do when PO is taking over Daily Scrums

I am a new Scrum Master for an established Team. The Product Owner (PO) gets along very well with the Team, almost like buddies, and is an ex-developer. The PO has started taking over my job of ...
TheLearner's user avatar
  • 2,529
11 votes
4 answers
571 views

Is it OK for a Scrum Master to allow a developer to work on a story not prioritized by the Product Owner, if it is on own time?

Here is the story (no pun intended): The Product Owner had a fairly common feature prioritized in the second sprint. It was estimated with low story points. The story was completed and in testing the ...
Ashok Ramachandran's user avatar
10 votes
6 answers
1k views

Showing the benefit of Product Goals and Sprint Goals?

I have 2 questions. If we are using Scrum, is it really Scrum if a Product Goal and a Sprint Goal does not exist? My current situation is that I inherited a project with no project charter or ...
Mary Miller's user avatar
10 votes
6 answers
3k views

Is dedicated product owner mandatory for a agile scrum team?

Team setup: We are primarily an IT development team of .Net+Java developers who work respectively on components based on these technology stacks only. About few weeks back our team has been asked to ...
Maheep's user avatar
  • 201
10 votes
5 answers
2k views

How can we continuously integrate new features when the PO only determines whether a feature is "done" at the end of each Sprint?

My team is having an issue with integrating software product features. Specifically, when do features get pull requested into our integration branch of code? Currently our understanding is: The ...
trianta2's user avatar
  • 313
9 votes
10 answers
14k views

Do you include testing in the original estimate?

Our dev team estimates work in hours, but we do not include any testing time in the original estimate. For example if the devs say an item will take 4 hours that will become our estimate for that item,...
iamthestreets's user avatar
9 votes
4 answers
729 views

In scrum, does it ever make sense to hire a product owner?

I have seen a scrum team trying to hire a product owner. They advertise for scrum skills, and experience. Does it make sense to hire a product owner from outside the company? If I do what skills ...
ctrl-alt-delor's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
2k views

What to do with a Product Owner who is not able to understand the role

I am a ScrumMaster for a team of developers and QA's with a Product Owner. I have tried unsuccessfully for the last year to get the PO to understand what the role of the PO entails and he just does ...
user32613's user avatar
  • 2,436
9 votes
2 answers
395 views

In SCRUM is it okay to have a separate 'product owner' per story?

We have stories coming into the backlog from various business area owners, like product support, marketing, partner integration, etc. We have one Product Owner that manages overall backlog priority ...
noahcoad's user avatar
8 votes
7 answers
5k views

Should a Product Owner start testing while an item is in code review

We have a Product Owner (PO) who starts testing while an item is in code review and gives feedback to developers. I see, from the point of view of the PO, that this allows for quicker feedback. ...
Ruan's user avatar
  • 784
8 votes
3 answers
884 views

What is the definition of Product

When working Scrum we are familiar with the words "Product Owner" and "Product Backlog" but what is "Product"?
Tiago Martins Peres's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
3k views

How should a Scrum Master deal with an angry stakeholder during a PO meeting?

As a Scrum Master, recently attended a meeting set up by PO with stakeholders, one stakeholder was concerned that the budget was not being spent properly. It got heated. At the meeting, I was not ...
bobo2000's user avatar
  • 3,882
8 votes
5 answers
10k views

When is the best time to create story tasks?

I have a team of developers who are relatively new to Agile and sprints (approx. 5 months now). Every time I walk into their sprint planning session, I do not like what I see. It's absolute silence ...
Jeach's user avatar
  • 221
7 votes
5 answers
3k views

Should I leave building the database for the end?

Let's suppose that, as a PO, I have a mini-project with my team. The project consists of displaying messages and announcements on big shared screen. The admin can write messages on a page on his ...
cascadox's user avatar
  • 175
7 votes
8 answers
1k views

Should a Product Owner be present for all retrospectives?

We have a Scrum Team of a Product Owner and four developers (one of whom is Scrum Master), running one week sprints. As per Scrumguides.org (emphasis mine): The Sprint Retrospective is an ...
Jeroen's user avatar
  • 218
7 votes
4 answers
1k views

Can the product owner remove user stories?

As a product owner, can I completely remove a story from the Product Backlog? I know everybody can add stories at anytime to the product backlog, but is the PO's only way to remove a story to put it ...
phadaphunk's user avatar
7 votes
6 answers
1k views

ex-Development manager as a Product Owner

In a new team, an ex-development manager, who's been in that position for many years, opted in as the team's Product Owner. The team has decided to do Scrum. The PO's Agile mentality is certainly ...
dqm's user avatar
  • 1,368
7 votes
6 answers
5k views

How important is having the PO inside the team?

I believe the Product Owner is an important member of the team and needs to be as accessible as any other. I've recently been confronted by the idea that because the PO is part of 'the business' (i.e....
Matt W's user avatar
  • 935
7 votes
5 answers
685 views

How to decide what features should be in MVP? [closed]

Is there any technique to make a decision whether to include the feature in MVP or not?
Ruslan Doronichev's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
1k views

How shall developers clarify PBI during its implementation?

Should developers have direct communication with stakeholders during Product Backlog Items implementation for their clarification. Or should all communication go through Product Owner? On the Scrum ...
Sergey Kudryavtsev's user avatar
7 votes
4 answers
513 views

How to leverage Agile development benefits in a fixed-cost project?

I recently joined a company that has started moving towards "more agile" development. I've already been product owner for an internal software project and that worked reasonably well as far as I can ...
BootstrapBill's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

Scrum Team and Product Owner working against each other

My current project involves two companies. The product owner from Company A and the development team from Company B. Recently the two companies came to a disagreement regarding the Product Owner (PO) ...
Ruan's user avatar
  • 784
6 votes
4 answers
1k views

From user stories to product, where and when to do graphic design?

We are taking our first steps in the Agile development world, and while we have a long path to follow, I'm having difficulties incorporating our graphic designer in the development process. The ...
Kuf's user avatar
  • 285
6 votes
5 answers
2k views

How to improve a Scrum-Team with a Product Owner who lacks authority

I'm the new Scrum Master of a Team that develops a software for a customer outside our company. This is my first time working as Scrum Master; I have no background in this field. Our company is just a ...
user2431655's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
841 views

Influence code quality as Scrum Product Owner

Introduction: In theory, Scrum says that the development team is fully responsible and self-organized when it comes to all things related to development. This also includes code quality which imho is ...
Stephan's user avatar
  • 259
6 votes
4 answers
2k views

Can we have a Sprint Zero with no deliverable code?

According to Ken Schwaber, “The minimum plan necessary to start a Scrum project consists of a vision and a Product Backlog. The vision describes why the project is being undertaken and what the ...
Ashok Ramachandran's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
504 views

Is "what browser do we have to support" in SCRUM an impediment or a user story?

The PO defined a user story, roughly saying: "As an employee want to use functionality X in our web interface". The functionality is well defined and for internal use in a large company, but during ...
TeXter's user avatar
  • 425
6 votes
2 answers
595 views

Product Owner in different time zone from scrum team

I am a product owner for a remote scrum team. I am on the east coast of the US. The scrum team is in India. This is a 10.5 hour time difference. I have been participating in their daily scrum at 6:...
Paul W's user avatar
  • 61
6 votes
3 answers
7k views

Career Progression from Product Owner

I work for a multinational IT consultancy firm that has a number of 'software assets' that it sells and develops for its clients. I started with the company straight out of University in a software ...
adohertyd's user avatar
  • 169
5 votes
5 answers
6k views

Is Scrum actually suitable for all kinds of projects?

The project that I am working on is purely non functional and deeply technical in nature, focused on improving the performance of the product as a whole. I have trouble seeing how Scrum is an ...
dragosb's user avatar
  • 158
5 votes
5 answers
910 views

Committing the Product Owner to a sprint backlog with a contract

A short introduction to the question: I'm a Scrum Master in a small web development organization (10 employees) and we do a lot of projects that'll last for 3 or 4 sprints, with an average duration of ...
smelly586's user avatar