The Responsibilities Of A Product Owner

As far as scrum methodology is concerned, the product owner plays a very important part in creating new products, and enhancing the value of existing ones for an organization. Many businesses struggle to implement the role in an effective manner, but often fail to do so. There are several reasons why this happens. One of the commonest causes is that the organization fails to properly understand the exact role played by the product owner, or may be unsure as to what kind of role is best suited for their project related requirements. The product owner “owns” the product on behalf of the investors and the stakeholders. The person is responsible for the success of the project, and is answerable to the management for the project.
 

A multifaceted role
The role of a product owner varies in real life depending upon several factors such as the market conditions, product life cycle, and management related concerns. The aims and objectives of a project depend upon the type and nature of the product to be developed, and how the owners desire to manufacture and market the product. The product owner has to oversee the completion of the project, whatever the project related requirements might be. There are times when the person has to think as an owner and ensure the project is being properly executed, so it benefits the management. The person may be required to act as a facilitator and coordinate the working of the team. It may be required to think like an entrepreneur while suggesting project related ROI solutions to the stakeholders. The role is not an easy one, and the product owner required to be a bit of everything – a team leader, entrepreneur, project manager, facilitator, and a product owner! 
 

Responsibilities of the product owner
A product owner should take up certain responsibilities:

People

• Understand the needs of customers and end users
• Collaborate with the development team
• Successfully manage the stakeholders

Strategy

• Create an effective business model
• Working out proper strategies for conducting sprint planning meetings, sprint review meetings, and sprint retrospective meetings 
• Develop the product definition and road map
• Define and explain the user experience and the product features

Learning and delivery

• Set up the sprint goal, detail the user stories, and decide what to do next
• Collect relevant data and analyze it for goal validation
• Update the business model and product features as per need
• Monitor and track the project progress (time and budget)
• Coordinate with the stakeholders for the product launch

Scrum

• Have the correct vision about how and where to take the product
• Prioritize the product backlog as per business value associated with user stories  
• Advise and offer help to the scrum master when asked for or required
• Analyze and understand the business model including the value proposition as well as the business benefits desired from the product development
• Ensure effectual sprint goals are set up and followed
• Choose the correct research and/or validation technique to exhibit the product increment

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Why Sprint Planning Meetings Are Important While Implementing Scrum Methodology

Sprint planning is perhaps one of the most important aspects of implementing scrum methodology. It offers an opportunity to validate the product backlog and take up user stories for the sprint backlog – the list of requirements taken up by the team members for development purpose during the sprint activity. Sprint planning involves a team effort. The product owner carries out sprint planning with the help of the scrum master, and it requires an active participation by the team members to complete it in a successful manner. The team members divide the user stories taken up in the sprint backlog into individual development tasks. Subsequently, the team members take up tasks for development depending upon their levels of expertise and experience.   

What is the nature of the sprint planning meeting?

The planning meeting generally occurs in two parts – the first part involving the product owner and the scrum master, in addition to the team members. The second part is attended by the team members, who may recall the product owner to the meeting if they need his or her help.

The first part

In the initial part of the meeting, the product owner shares his or her vision regarding what should be included within the sprint backlog based upon the importance of the requirements, or the user stories, available in the product backlog. The person discusses the sprint goal with the team, and explains about what the investors and the stakeholders desire regarding the functionality associated with the product backlog items. The sprint goal is also decided and carefully explained to the team members. One of the most important aspects is the discussion related to the acceptance levels of the user stories i.e. what the user story should satisfy in terms of criteria to be considered as “completed” or “done”. Ideally, the team members should make notes during the meeting so they can remember about the specifics associated with each product backlog item. If any member is unclear about any aspect pertaining to the user story, or how it should be developed, he or she is free to ask during this part of the meeting and get his or her confusions cleared.

The second part

The second part of the meeting is succeeded by a break, usually the lunch break. This part is important for the team members since they have to discuss amongst each other how the sprint backlog items should be segregated and broken down into individual tasks. Each story should be broken down into smaller parts so the team can easily develop it. Thereafter, the individual members of the team unanimously decide as to who should take up which tasks. This part requires a proactive participation, and the members should volunteer to take up work. Generally, the work is taken up based on expertise possessed by the team member. More experienced members can take up more tasks, while less experienced ones tread carefully by taking up easier stories which can be developed without much complexity. Eventually, the list is completed as to which of the user stories will be “processed” and developed by which team member.    

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How Product Owners Can Increase Their ROI And Boost Up Sales

Many discussions and talks have been carried out regarding the actual role of a product owner i.e. what makes the ideal product owner. Several suggestions have been put forward explaining the role of the product owner – both ideal ones and practical ones. However, the debate is far from over since client requirements often keep on changing, and there is always a confusion whether a client can assume the role of a product owner, and if so, would it be contradictory to scrum methodology? Actually, it would be more meaningful to consider what type of activities should be undertaken by the product owner, rather than follow the ideal role of being one. As far as real life scenarios are concerned, it is the client who is the most well versed person as regards the developmental requirements and what kinds of functionalities ought to be incorporated in the user stories.
 

Know more about the product owner’s role in scrum

 

Suggested activities for a product owner
For the client and the product owner, it is very important to be familiar with the scrum methodology and its techniques. It is also important to know about the advantages of scrum, and what it has to offer over traditional development methods before tapping the full potential of it. The activities can ideally include:

• Remain present and contribute information as well as knowledge during sprint reviews, sprint planning, and retrospective meetings
• Order and create the product backlog based upon the importance of user stories and ROI
• Be easily available to team members, and provide appropriate feedback whenever they face difficulties or issues during development
• Thoroughly understand the product backlog items, and define the acceptance criteria for the tasks.  
• Define a sprint goal for each sprint
• Not try to influence the mindsets of team members with regards the complexity involved with the development activity, rather encourage them to be productive and “open to problems”
• Respect and adhere to the sprint goal

 

How product owners can make their work easy and more productive
It is very important to correctly define and manage the product backlog items to implement scrum in the perfect manner, and benefit from the advantages offered by the methodology. In addition, the user stories need to be properly stated and identified within the system, and individual tasks taken up by the team members. QuickScrum helps to define product backlog items with a lot of ease and flexibility, and what’s more, the items can be effortlessly rearranged as per choice using dynamic drag-and-drop features. You can save a lot of valuable time and efforts while allotting tasks to individual team members, and check out the project status using highly informative and useful reporting capabilities included within the scrum management tool. 
 

QuickScrum supports a host of useful and dynamic features specially developed for product owners, scrum masters, and businesses using scrum methodology to increase their productivity. It’s worth knowing more about this flexible and powerful scrum management tool, and the plethora of time saving and productivity-increasing features specially developed for you.
 

Find out more, and benefit by downloading our free QuickScrum tool which can boost your profit margins!