Are you serious? — episode 29
Since I have been involved in Scrum I have seen quite a few Development Teams suffering because they don’t have a voice when the Sprint Backlog is created. The Product Owner determines what needs to be worked on Sprint after Sprint. Sometimes the Product Owner even has a plan for the upcoming Sprints. A plan that is non-negotiable within the Scrum Team.
Apparently these Product Owners mixed-up their role with that of a Project Manager. A bad Project Manager.
There are several serious issues here:
The Product Owner thinks (s)he is in charge of the Sprint Backlog
Well, this is NOT the case. The complete Scrum Team determines what the Sprint Goal will be and the Development Team then determines the Sprint Backlog to achieve this Sprint Goal:
Who decides what goes in the Sprint Backlog?
Are you serious? — episode 5medium.com
The Product Owner thinks (s)he is in charge of the Scrum Team
It is also easy to rebut this idea:
“They are self-organizing. No one (not even the Scrum Master) tells the Development Team how to turn Product Backlog into Increments of potentially releasable functionality;” — SG
For the sake of clarity I’d either remove the “(not even the Scrum Master)” part or change it into (not even the Scrum Master and the Product Owner). I don’t know why it needs to be emphasised that the Scrum Master can’t tell them ‘how’. ‘No one’ can’t be any clearer.
The Product Owner thinks (s)he can make decisions about the Sprint without consulting the rest of the Scrum Team
I believe this idea is already tackled as it resulted from the false assumptions that the Product Owner owns the Sprint Backlog and that the Product Owner is in charge of the Scrum Team.
The Product Owner believes that a plan doesn’t change
(S)he doesn’t appear to see that in-between Sprints or even during a Sprint new insights will arise impacting the plan.
“Scrum is founded on empirical process control theory, or empiricism. Empiricism asserts that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is known. Scrum employs an iterative, incremental approach to optimize predictability and control risk.” — SG (emphasis added)
A Product Owner should accept changes to the Sprint Backlog and the Product Backlog as a given.
The Scrum Master doesn’t have the knowledge or the power to set the Product Owner straight
The Scrum Master should coach the team to raise the understanding on what Scrum entails. Pivotal quotes from the Scrum Guide are how the Scrum Master servers the Development Team:
“Coaching the Development Team in self-organization and cross-functionality;” — SG
And how the Scrum Master serves the Product Owner:
“* Understanding product planning in an empirical environment;
And
* Understanding and practicing agility; ” — SG
The Scrum Master should step up here. It is vital for her/him to be courageous and to address these kinds of issues with the Scrum Team as a whole. This is an unhealthy and perhaps even unsafe situation that will hold everyone back if not resolved.
However, maybe it is not enough to tackle this within the team alone. There’s a bigger issue when this behaviour from the Product Owner is considered normal within the organisation or perhaps even expected. Also this is a task for the Scrum Master. (S)he serves the organization by:
“Helping employees and stakeholders understand and enact Scrum and empirical product development;” — SG
And
“Working with other Scrum Masters to increase the effectiveness of the application of Scrum in the organization.” — SG
Often this is not an easy job because when the organisation finds this behavior of the Product Owner normal then there surely are more issues with the Scrum Adoption within the organisation. It makes the Scrum Master role both challenging and exciting.
Did you like the article? Then it would be awesome if you’d clap 👏🏻. I am also very keen to learn what you think about this topic.
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