4.1 Product Owner
The product owner represents the interests of the stakeholder community towards the development team. The product owner is responsible for ensuring clear communication of product or service functionality requirements to the development team, defining acceptance criteria, and ensuring those criteria are met. In other words, the product owner is responsible for ensuring that the development team delivers value.
The product owner must always maintain a dual view. He or she must understand and support the needs and interests of all stakeholders, while also understanding the needs and workings of the development team. Because the product owner must understand the needs and priorities of the stakeholders, including customers and users, this role is commonly referred to as the voice of the customer.
The responsibilities of the product owner in various scrum processes:
|
Process |
Product Owner Responsibilities |
|
Product Vision Creation |
Defines the Product Vision |
|
Identification of People Requirements |
■ Helps organize Development Teams for the project ■ Identifies the Stakeholder(s) and Scrum Master(s) |
|
Formation of Development Team |
■ Helps select development team members ■ Helps develop a collaboration plan ■ Helps develop the team building plan with scrum master(s) |
|
Development of Epic(s) |
Creates Epic(s) and Personas |
|
Creation of Prioritized Product Backlog |
■ Prioritizes Prioritized Product Backlog Items ■ Defines Done Criteria |
|
Conducting Release Planning |
■ Creates Release Planning Schedule ■ Helps determine Length of Sprint |
|
Creation of User Stories |
■ Helps create User Stories ■ Defines Acceptance Criteria for every User Story |
|
Approval, Estimation and Commitment to User Stories |
■ Approves User Stories ■ Facilitates Development Team and commits User Stories |
|
Creation of Tasks |
Explains User Stories to the Development Team while creating the Task List |
|
Estimation of Tasks |
Provides guidance and clarification to the Development Team in estimating effort for Tasks |
|
Creation of Sprint Backlog |
Clarifies requirements to the Development Team while creating the Sprint Backlog |
|
Creation of Deliverables |
Clarifies business requirements to the Development Team |
|
Refining of Prioritized Product Backlog |
Refines the Prioritized Product Backlog |
|
Presentation and Validation of Sprint |
■ Accepts/Rejects Deliverables ■ Provides necessary feedback to Scrum Master and Development Teams ■ Updates Release Plan and Prioritized Product Backlog |
|
Shipment of Deliverables |
Helps deploy Product Releases and coordinates this with the Customer |
|
Project Retrospection |
Participates in Retrospect Sprint Meetings |
Other responsibilities of a Product Owner include:
- Determining the project's initial overall requirements and kicking off project activities, this may involve interaction with the Program Product Owner and the Portfolio Product Owner to ensure that the project aligns with direction provided by senior management.
- Representing user(s) of the product or service with a thorough understanding of the user community.
- Securing the initial and ongoing financial resources for the project.
- Focusing on value creation and overall Return on Investment (ROI).
- Assessing the viability and ensuring the delivery of the product or service.
