Product Owner

Returning to the time I was told by my team manager I was going to form a new team to work on a new product, I’ve never thought that in almost 4 years, my team has grown and sustained in a way different than other teams in the company. When I was in my previous team, many people struggled using Scrum. People are obsessed with Story Pointing. Some team members refused to attend the Sprint Review and Retrospective. Everyone works without a clear goal but only emptying the backlog and fighting the deadlines. Arguments like Code Refactoring versus meeting the deadlines and estimation versus actual were everywhere. There were times that I doubted if Scrum brought us a tough time. There were times that I almost wanted to quit the job due to the burnout. ...

In traditional software development, a business analyst is responsible for gathering the users’ requirements, translating them into other formats like requirement specifications or user stories, and requesting the developers to commence the development work. When a team adopts Scrum, they often feel unsure of where to start. In most cases, the business analyst will assume the role of the Product Owner. This decision is based on the intuitive similarity between the responsibilities of a business analyst and those of a Product Owner. ...

In 2020, the Scrum Guide changed “Scrum Roles” to “Scrum Accountabilities”. This implies that a member of a Scrum Team is not tied to a role. A Scrum Team member takes accountability to work towards the same Product Goal. It also implies that a single member may take multiple Scrum Accountabilities. But is it recommended? Despite the influential people at Scrum.org not recommending us to take multiple Scrum Accountabilities, I had no choice but to take all three accountabilities since my team’s establishment. The team works quite smoothly most of the time, but there are unnoticed risks. ...

Last year, whilst preparing for the Scrum.org certification series, I often encountered questions regarding the unavailability of the Product Owner. The effectiveness of the Scrum Team can indeed be affected when the Product Owner is absent. What if the Product Owner is always available? Would it have an impact on the team’s effectiveness? What should the Scrum Team do when the Product Owner is unavailable? As a team member with multiple accountabilities, I take on the accountabilities of both Scrum Master and Product Owner simultaneously (and occasionally even a Developer when urgently required). Influenced by and misunderstanding the implications of the questions regarding the Product Owner’s unavailability, I initially made myself as available as possible during the early stages. Whenever the developers needed clarification, I would always be there to ensure that all Product Backlog Items were transparent and well understood. ...