“Our Scrum Teams have a Product Owner, a Scrum Master and the Development Team. Every Product Owner serves one Scrum Team”.
What is wrong with this statement?
Well, it starts with the fact that the Product Owner doesn’t serve a team but instead is responsible for maximizing the value of the product. When we underline this, we can then draw the following conclusions:
A product has one Product Backlog.
A Product Owner is responsible for the Product Backlog, There’s one Product Owner per Product Backlog.
However, multiple Scrum Teams can work on the same product.
So, when multiple Scrum Teams work on the same product they work with the same (one) Product Owner.
I can see how each Scrum Team within the company serves a specific product which then automatically means that the Product Owner to Scrum Team ratio is 1:1. But, typically this is a sign that Product Owners are merely component owners or feature owners.
More often than not the Product Owner to Scrum ratio of 1:1 hints towards an anti-pattern. Are Product Owners working on a product or merely on a component? Do people within the organisation really grasp Scrum? Because Scrum only sees a Product Owner to Product Backlog ratio of 1:1 and acknowledges that multiple teams can work from the same Product Backlog.
Do you recognize this? Do you agree? Let me know!
Product is something that satisfies a business need, a real problem. More in general, Products have features that give customers the benefits they need. Component Owner is as bad a name as Business Problem Solver.
For once - I don't usually argue this, on the contrary - here I think the solution is strictly technical. If the software of all Squads-Scrum Masters-Product Owners, with their Product Backlogs, is always prepared to move to PRO, that is, Continuous Integration is practiced, then it makes no sense to talk about a "component".
We will talk about Product allways with no ambiguity, since it is the behavior in PRO that guides developments (the "delivery of value" in agilist jargon).
Whether the PO-Product Backlog relationship is 1:1 or n:n, there is always a rule to comply with: DONT BRANCH https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXQEi1O5IOI