Suggested Reading for Professional Scrum Product Owner™ I

Prove Your Knowledge of Product Ownership

We have gathered content on this page which we suggest you utilize when preparing for the PSPO I. These are suggested resources, and you may find resources not mentioned on this page helpful, along with the application of your own experience using Scrum. 

Prior to taking the PSPO I certification a great way to prepare is to attend a course.  Several courses and learning formats are available:

- Instructor Led: Professional Scrum Product Owner™
- Self-Paced: Professional Scrum Product Owner™ Fundamentals

PSPO I includes questions from the following Focus Areas as defined in the Professional Scrum Competencies.

• Understanding and Applying the Scrum Framework:
  • Empiricism, Scrum Team, Events, Artifacts, Done
• Developing People and Teams:
  • Self-Managing Teams
• Managing Products with Agility:
  • Forecasting & Release Planning, Product Vision, Product Value, Product Backlog Management, Business Strategy, Stakeholders & Customers

Where to begin

• Be very familiar with the Scrum Guide.
• Your primary study resource should be the Resources for Product Owners
• Since the Product Owner works very closely with the Scrum Master and the Developers, it will be beneficial to become familiar with material in the Resources for Growing as a Scrum Master
• Review the valuable series of articles, blogs, videos and more that pertain to the 2020 version of the Scrum Guide released on November 18, 2020.
• In addition, you may find The Professional Product Owner by Don McGreal and Ralph Jocham helpful.

Additional Books about Scrum and Product Ownership:

The Scrum Framework

• The Scrum Guide
• Agile Software Development with Scrum by Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle
• Scrum – A Pocket Guide by Gunther Verheyen

Scrum Theory and Principles

• The New New Product Development Game by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka
• A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making by David J. Snowden and Mary E. Boone
• The Leader's Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing the Workplace for the 21st Century by Stephen Denning

Cross-functional, Self-organizing Teams

• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
• Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams by Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister

Maximizing Value

• Software in 30 Days: How Agile Managers Beat the Odds, Delight Their Customers, and Leave Competitors in the Dust by Ken Schwaber
• The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries

Product Backlog Management

• User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development by Mike Cohn  
• Agile Estimating and Planning by Mike Cohn