Why do we have a Product Owner anway?
February 13, 2009 by Jack Milunsky
I can’t stress enough just how important the role of the Product Owner really is. This job is not for the faint-of-heart. In fact, the Product Owner is probably the most important individual on the Scrum team since he single-handedly is responsible for driving the direction the team is taking.
The team is responsible for how they are going to implement the functionality. The Product Owner, on the other hand, is responsible for WHAT they are going to build and in what priority order. Although, there are times that Architectural elements will be prioritized ahead of business functionality, for obvious reasons. So, the Product Owner is like the driver on a bus. He can drive the team around in circles, off a cliff or he can ensure the team is taken to a place where it can make a significant impact – Imagine that!
Who Should Be A Product OwnerThe activities that Product Owners are responsible for, require competent individuals who are passionate about what they’re doing, are well informed, have excellent domain expertise and are customer and ROI focused. Scrum is all about producing company value or ROI, so it is critical that the team is ruthlessly focused on THE most important tasks and should be based on over-arching business goals. Remember that more than 60% of all features are never used. As a result, Product Owners have to make sure that they’re not wasting valuable resources (the most significant company cost is people cost) on functionality that is not really required.
The Product Owner And ScrumThe beauty about the Scrum process is that it provides a framework that pressurizes (forces) the Product Owner to sequence work. I use “sequence” purposefully as opposed to “prioritize” as there may be multiple high priority features to work on and the Product Owner must choose which, based on the teams available capacity at the time. This is hard work and careful thought has to be put into this activity. In many cases, the company’s survival depends on the positive influence a Product Owner has over the team. Since Scrum is such a transparent process, you’ll know very quickly if the Product Owner is doing his/her job well.
So choose your Product Owner wisely - a good Product Owner is worth his/her weight in gold!
In the next blog we'll cover the specific activities a Product Owner is responsible for.
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About the Author: As COO and Scrum Master, Jack Milunsky heads software development at Brightspark. Jack is an early adopter of Scrum and has a great passion for early stage startups. Jack is co-creator of Agilebuddy, a next generation Scrum Application SaaS. Jack combines over 18 years of experience managing software development teams both large and small. You can follow Jack for great tips on Agile at http://twitter.com/agilebuddy
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Comments
Product Manager as Product Owner
February 13, 2009 by AccuRevComm (not verified), 2 years 50 weeks ago
Comment id: 2229
Have you seen instances where a Product Manager was designated as Product Owner, and how did that work out?
The product manager can act as the product owner, defining the product vision and
communicating it to team members. The product manager will need to work closely with the people responsible for translating the vision into iterations. For example, the product manager might direct the people responsible for requirements in a time-boxed (choose your process here) iteration to possible sources for incremental data collection.
Thank you,
Alex
Product Manager as Product Owner
February 14, 2009 by jackMilunsky, 2 years 50 weeks ago
Comment id: 2230
Most often, Product Managers become the Product Owners. And most often they make good Agile PM's There's a good debate at http://tinyurl.com/c5bgog about Prod. Mgrs. where the author is suggestng there's no such thing as Agile PM. I completely disagree and I responded on my own blog at blog.agilebuddy.com.
The Product Owner (Manager) is totally responsible for what gets done and when. So they're in full control of the order of things. Except when there's architecture work that may need to get scheduled ahead of new Feature development.
Hope this helps
Jack
Product Manager as Product Owner
February 14, 2009 by Nathan (not verified), 2 years 50 weeks ago
Comment id: 2231
If your company is trying to serve the needs of a market, as opposed to a single customer, then it makes sense for the PM to fill the Product Owner role. It's important to understand that this is only one of many hats that the PM must wear though - it's not a job, it's a role.
I've played this role as PM in the past and it works great.
Product Manager as Product Owner
February 14, 2009 by PM Hut (not verified), 2 years 50 weeks ago
Comment id: 2232
I agree with Jack. Almost all the time you have the Product Manager is the same person as the Product Owner.
I have published an article on the roles and the responsibilities of the product manager/product owner, you will see that the roles and the responsibilities are merged into one article (meaning they are, in most cases, the same person).
Product Manager as Product Owner
February 14, 2009 by jackMilunsky, 2 years 50 weeks ago
Comment id: 2233
Next week I was planning on covering the roles of the Product Owner. Hopefully I'll be able to add value over the article you reference above. I will be sure to check it out.
jack
Product Owner anti-pattern: "Single Wringable Neck"
February 16, 2009 by Mike Bria (not verified), 2 years 50 weeks ago
Comment id: 2234
In related news, I posted a blog a few days ago talking about a common Product Owner anti-pattern I've often observed: holding this person responsible for the success/failure of the project. Often referred to as them being the "single wringable neck" (yuck).
Check it out here:
http://aydsoftware.blogspot.com/2009/02/wringing-necks.html
Because product owner keeps
February 17, 2009 by commediait (not verified), 2 years 50 weeks ago
Comment id: 2235
Because product owner keeps the whole responsibility of the product.....
Product Owners - be careful
February 22, 2009 by David (not verified), 2 years 49 weeks ago
Comment id: 2265
I like your use of the analogy 'So, the Product Owner is like the driver on a bus. He can drive the team around in circles, off a cliff or he can ensure the team is taken to a place where it can make a significant impact'
Given this direction that the Product Owner can end up steering the project, I think it’s extra important for the Scrum Master or Project Manager to co-ordinate the project efficiently to avoid possible misdirection from the Product Owner.
I agree that they can be worth their weight in gold, and on the flip side could bring you down like a tonne of bricks.
Regards,
David
http://www.jacksguides.com
Be careful
April 17, 2009 by jack milunsky (not verified), 2 years 41 weeks ago
Comment id: 2464
Tanks for your comments David. I appreciate you contributing
Jack
I like your use of the
August 20, 2009 by Anonymous (not verified), 2 years 24 weeks ago
Comment id: 2992
I like your use of the analogy 'So, the Product Owner is like the driver on a bus. He can drive the team around in circles, off a cliff or he can ensure the team is taken to a place where it can make a significant impact'
Given this direction that the Product Owner can end up steering the project, I think it’s extra important for the Scrum Master or Project Manager to co-ordinate the project efficiently to avoid possible misdirection from the Product Owner.
I agree that they can be worth their weight in gold, and on the flip side could bring you down like a tonne of bricks.
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