PO is a Person and a Role
There has been a lot of talk lately about the Product Owner, and people are getting quite heated about it. Here’s my take on it.
The Product Owner is the person (not role, person) who is held accountable for the success of the team. He/she is the boss, commander, one throat to choke, MFIC, single wringable neck, Big Cheese, etc. If you want to know who the PO is, just ask management who has the bullseye painted on his/her chest. Period… and that’s all I have to say about that.
Well, maybe not. Because of this unique relationship the ProductOwner has with both management and the team, some things should be obvious. Among these are:
1. the ProductOwner has the right to be involved in every decision the team makes, and has veto power at all times, and
2. the team has the obligation to give the ProductOwner all the information needed to make good decisions.
Wait a minute, though. Scrum has 3 roles (roles, not people) defined: ProductOwner, ScrumMaster, and TeamMember. Oh… so we have a person called the ProductOwner, and a role called the ProductOwner. How interesting… could this cause a problem?
Yes. It gets people confused. Don’t be one of them… just follow along.
On a scrum team there are three sets of responsibilities:
1. Whats and Whens: What are we building? When do we need it? What does that requirement mean? What provides value to StakeHolders? Etcetera. These are usually called the ProductOwner responsibilities.
2. Hows and Dos: How do we do it? How do we verify it? Actually Do the work. Etcetera. These are called the Team Member responsibilities.
3. Team and Process: How does this team work? What is the Process? Facilitation. Etcetera. These are called the ScrumMaster resonsibilities.
Here’s the rub – SELF-ORGANIZING TEAM. People have skills, people don’t play roles. THe scrum team makes up its own rules obout who does what – that’s the essence of the team’s process in scrum. That’s why the PO(person) writes the stories on some teams, and not on others… that’s why the PO(person) does acceptance testing on some teams, and not on others… that’s why the PO(person) does design and architecture on some teams, and not on others… the list goes on and on.
Of course, some organizations have attempted to “processize” the job of the PO(person), so that they all do the same things on the teams within the organization. Other organizations have insisted that just because you do some of the ProductOwner responsibilities, you must BE the ProductOwner. (do you really think an analyst is the “single wringable neck”? I didn’t think so…) It’s your team, it’s your organization, you do what you want to do… This is just my opinion.
But, as far as I’m concerned, here’s all you have to remember about the ProductOwner:
- the ProductOwner is the TeamMember who is the “single wringable neck”
- what the ProductOwner does on the team is based on his/her skills and the needs of the team
- all ProductOwners are different
Thanks, Dan ;-)
