Scrum’s Product Owner Role Jeff Patton Agile Product Design

© Jeff Patton, All rights reserved, 2 The product owner role comes from the specific Agile process Scrum It’s called “the snowman model” (see the snowman?)

© Jeff Patton, All rights reserved, 3 The product owner plans the product in layers

© Jeff Patton, All rights reserved, 4 The product owner plans the product in layers Product or Project What business objectives will the product fulfill? Product Charter Elevator Pitch Release How can we release value incrementally? What subset of business objectives will each release achieve? What user constituencies will the release serve? What general capabilities (big stories) will the release offer? Release plan Iteration What specifically will we build? (user stories) How will this iteration move us toward release objectives? Iteration Plan Story (Backlog Item) What user or stakeholder need will the story serve? How will it specifically look and behave? How will I determine if it’s completed? Story Details Acceptance Tests

© Jeff Patton, All rights reserved, 5 The Planning Onion can grow to include product portfolios and business strategy Product or Project What business objectives will the product fulfill? Product Charter Elevator Pitch Release How can we release value incrementally? What subset of business objectives will each release achieve? What user constituencies will the release serve? What general capabilities (big stories) will the release offer? Release plan Iteration What specifically will we build? (user stories) How will this iteration move us toward release objectives? Iteration Plan Story (Backlog Item) What user or stakeholder need will the story serve? How will it specifically look and behave? How will I determine if it’s completed? Story Details Acceptance Tests Product or Project Release Iteration Story

© Jeff Patton, All rights reserved, 6 The Planning Onion can grow to include product portfolios and business strategy Product or Project Release Iteration Story © Jeff Patton, All rights reserved, 6

7 Product or Project Release Iteration Story The Planning Onion can grow to include product portfolios and business strategy Product Portfolio Business Strategy © Jeff Patton, All rights reserved, 7

8 The Product Owner Is a: Subject Matter Expert  Understand the domain well enough to envision a product  Answer technical questions on the domain for those creating the product End User Advocate  Describe the product with understanding of users and use, and a product that best serves both Customer Advocate  Understand the needs of the business buying the product and select a mix of features valuable to the customer Business Advocate  Understand the needs of the organization paying for the software’s construction and select a mix of features that serve their goals Communicator  Capable of communicating vision and intent – deferring detailed feature and design decisions to be made just in time Decision Maker  Given a variety of conflicting goals and opinions, be the final decision maker for hard product decisions The Product Owner role is generally filled by a single person supported by a collaborative team

© Jeff Patton, All rights reserved, 9 Product Owner Responsibilities Organize the backlog into incremental releases Specify objective acceptance criteria for stories Communicate Business Goals, Customer Goals, End User Goals Coordinate involvement of SMEs, users, and business stakeholders Coordinate with other product owners to insure coherence of product and releases Create and maintain the product backlog Participate daily Be available to answer questions and clarify details on user stories Verify stories are done based on acceptance criteria Evaluate product at end of Sprint and add or remove stories from backlog as necessary

© Jeff Patton, All rights reserved, 10 Product Owner Team Development Team Design and Coded Features Pass Back and Forth Between Tracks implement iteration 1 features gather user input for iteration 3 features design iteration 2 features support iteration 1 development implement iteration 2 features fix iteration 1 bugs if any gather user input for iteration 4 features design iteration 3 features support iteration 2 development validate iteration 1 features implement iteration 3 features fix iteration 2 bugs if any gather user input for iteration 5 features design iteration 4 features support iteration 3 development validate iteration 2 features planning data gathering design for iteration 1 features – high technical requirements, low user requirements development environment setup architectural “spikes” Sprint 0Sprint 1Sprint 2Sprint 3 feature design coded features time feature design + bugs found in usability testing support dev