Product Owner:Why create this role ?

Venkatesh Prasadreachme.venky@gmail.com

Motivation

• A Product Roadmap is built• by identifying features which are critical to customers and have revenue potential• evaluating the technical feasibility of such features.

• This is a collaborative effort of various stakeholders like Product Management, Product Owner, Architects, Engineering Managers and Senior engineers (Dev/QA/Doc).

• Features are Prioritized from this roadmap and added to the release backlog

• Release backlog can be revised to maintain the “competitive advantage” (this is where we are ‘Agile’)

Product Owner – What does this person do

• A Product Owner is responsible to maintain the release and sprint backlogs. • Based on the product scale, an organization could have a Chief Product Owner to manage

the release backlog and independent Product Owners to manage sprint backlogs

• A Product Owner builds these backlogs by performing following activities:• Prioritize the items in the backlog to deliver highest business/customer value• Decide what goes into the product backlog and equally important, what does not• Decide which backlog items the team shall deliver in the current sprint• Regularly confirm with stakeholders that release backlog meets changing customer needs• Assist the Scrum Master in protecting the team from disruptions in sprint backlog.

• The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the business value of the engineering team’s work.

Product Owner – Behind the scenes

• Build domain knowledge around the product.• Partner with Architects (System, UX) to ensure design, prototypes, wireframes meet

requirements• Work along with Product Management to influence cross-geo teams to align releases• Negotiate with teams to implement dependent features required by our product

• Collaborate with other Product Owners to• Align product release priorities to manage dependent features.• Identify common features/infrastructure and eliminate redundancy

• Organizes stakeholder reviews to validate features and gain feedback• Conduct demos of product features to customers/stakeholders.• Understand the business impact of the product and study competitor solutions/strategy

FAQ : What support Stakeholders can expect ?

Qs. I am the engineering lead for the group. In one of the team’s program review meeting I feel they are working on a feature which is of lower priority. Can the product owner help me understand the prioritization ?Ans. Yes. The product owner should explain to you why the team is working on a particular feature. If you still feel the priority should be lower, then advise the Product Owner on what factors he/she missed to address during the prioritization discussion.Qs. I am the product manager for the group. In a recent conversation one customer was ready to commit to our upcoming product release, if a feature they are highly interested in is available. But this feature is lower in priority in the product backlog. How can the Product Owner help here ?Ans. The Product Owner of the team whose feature is in discussion can prioritize this feature higher in the backlog. The PO will discuss with the team regarding the impact on the release timeline. Based on this, the PO would revert back to you with the request to drop another feature to accommodate this one OR coordinate a discussion with the architect to explain the technical non-feasibility of the feature in the given release timeline.

FAQ : What support Stakeholders can expect ? (Contd..)

Qs. I am the manager of a team. I need to update stakeholders (E.g. support, senior mgmt) on what work the team will deliver in the next few months. How will the PO help here?Ans. The Product Owner will provide a prioritized list of features in the team’s backlog and assist in determining what to expect in the different timelines. The PO will also update you on discussions in progress for changes in priority. Qs. I am the architect of the group. I have found a new design approach for a feature which can improve the response-time and resiliency of the product. But this feature is already half-way through implementation. How will the Product Owner assist in this situation ?Ans. The Product Owner shall discuss with Product Management to evaluate the potential customer interest for the benefits the new design approach provides. If Product Management agrees then PO will explain the rationale on team on making changes mid-way through development.Qs. I am the manager of a team. The team members express anguish to me about regular change in work priorities. How can the Product Owner help?Ans. The Product Owner should inform you of changing priorities and their rationale so you are better prepared for such discussions. The PO should incorporate your feedback on team’s interest/morale during prioritization discussions.

FAQ : What support a team can expect ? Qs. I am a team member, I think another feature is more important than the one the team is presently working on. Can I talk to the Product Owner on this?Ans. Absolutely. The PO is responsible to explain the business rationale for a feature. Also the PO may find your recommendation appropriate and take it further to discuss with product release stakeholders for prioritization.Qs. I am the Scrum Master. I strive hard to avoid disruptions to the team during a sprint. However certain critical customer issues always tend to disrupt the team’s work. How can the Product Owner help?Ans. The Product Owner can help by having the customer issues added to the backlog and prioritize them before the start of the sprint. This way the team can work on a consolidated backlog. If unavoidable customer issues arise during a sprint, then the PO can help decide what can be dropped from the sprint.Qs. I am a team member. I have new ideas on HOW to implement the stories/features planned for in the near future? How can the PO help?Ans. The Product Owner should not help in this regard, the Architect should help you. The PO shall guide on WHAT to implement. The Architect and the team together evaluate and decide on HOW to implement a story/feature.

FAQ : What support a team can expect ? (Contd…)

Qs. I am a team member. During the sprint I found I need certain hardware configuration changes or new licenses to work on this feature? What do I do?Ans. Work with your Scrum Master to procure these so that your work still completes in the sprint. If you determine that a resolution cannot be found to meet the sprint deadline, then immediately inform the PO regarding this risk to story completion.Qs. I am a team member. During backlog grooming the team estimated the feature/story that I am working on to complete in a sprint. Now when I am working on the story I realize this I need more time to complete this. What do I do ?Ans. Discuss with your team and Scrum Master to check if any one else has capacity to share your workload so the story can complete in the sprint. If no resolution is arrived, then the Scrum Master, Product Owner and you (& team if necessary) can together conclude on a split of the story such that a potentially shippable increment is delivered in the sprint.Qs. I am the Scrum Master. In the backlog grooming the Product Owner is persuading the team that one sprint is enough for a story/feature. How do I correct this?Ans. You should coach the Product Owner that the team shall decide the estimate of the story/feature. The PO should only bring up stories for estimation

References

• http://scaledagileframework.com• http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com//resources/the-strategic-role-of-pr

oduct-management-when-development-goes-agile?p=2• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=502ILHjX9EE • http://agilemodeling.com/essays/productOwner.htm• http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/agile/scrum/product-owner