How to be a Good Product Owner in Scrum Project?

A Product owner is the guardian of the product vision and goals, because the focus on a Scrum project is to deliver business results and values. So the question is how can one be the best product owner possible? We believe, based on our experience, that a product owner should possess the following key qualities. These qualities are depicted in Figure Below.

Responsibilities of a Product Owner

The role of a Product Owneris to represent the customer to the development team, who should be available to the development team at all times to answer any questions team members have regarding the customer’s view of how they’re implementing a product feature.  A key activity of a product owner is to manage and make visible the product backlog, or the prioritized list of requirements for future product development. A Product owner is responsible for following key activities which include:

1. Create the Product Vision
   The Product Owner creates, manages and owns the Product vision. The Product vision describes the purpose of a Product, the intention with which the Product is being created and what it aims to achieve for customers and users.
2. Refines the Product Backlog
   As a Product Owner, you are responsible for Product Backlog Management, in order to maximize the value of the Product. The Product Backlog is the single source of truth which contains all the work to be done on the Product.
   
3. Set the Product Roadmap
   The Product owner is responsible for the management of the product roadmap. The concept of a product roadmap is a high-level strategic plan that describes the likely development of the product over the next period of time. The roadmap should support the products’ purpose and vision and it helps the Product Owners to keep their stakeholders aligned. The roadmap also makes it easier to coordinate the development of different products and it fosters transparency in order to manage customer expectations.
4. Plans Releases
   Like the Scrum Product Backlog the Release plan is not a static plan. When new knowledge is available, the entries in the Scrum Product Backlog are required to change and re-estimate by the product owner accordingly. Therefore the Release Plan should be revisited and updated in regular intervals by the team, e.g. after each Sprint.
5. Attend Scrum Meeting
6. Follows Scrum Process
7. Be available for the Scrum events and align the development decision with the business goals and values

Summary

A Scrum project cannot succeed without a good product owner who must be decisive and possess not only the required responsibility mentioned, but also embedded with the mindset of the following:

• To constantly protect the best interests of the customer in terms of delivered functionality,
• To protect the organization as a whole, in terms of strategic direction and ROI.

 

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