Product Owner
Hello Community
I am working on a paper for my study concerning the role of a product owner and how to find people who fit in this position. Writing my paper I asked myself: Is Scrum the only framework with the role of a product owner or does this role also exist in other frameworks? If yes, what frameworks are this?
If not, which role comes the closest to a product owner?
Hope anybody can help me with this question.
Regards
Stefano
Hi Stefano,
I don't know of a Product Owner in other frameworks. In waterfall-development, the tasks of the Scrum Product Owner are performed by
* project manager
* requirements engineer
* tester
But of course, the tasks are differently performed there. And the project manager has also some tasks that apply more to the Scrum Master role than to the Product Owner.
Best regards,
Anke.
The closest role to Product Owner in traditional product development models is the Business Manager that represents the business needs and sponsoring.
However, their working style is different from what is expected from a Scrum Product Owner. Some examples of
--- They usually hand over / co-create the requirements specifications during early phases. They only meet up again later during late stages.
--- They freeze the requirements specifications and sign-off.. Later they follow change contract terms to modify that
--- Mostly likely they work only with designated people in the Development Team
Product Owner does not resort to a traditional working style where they define all the product needs at one stretch based on today’s knowledge, and then toss a big requirements documents over the “fence” to another team for development.
The Product Owner is much more than a traditional business manager in two aspects:
1. Continuous engagement with the team
Product Owner respects the fact that future cannot be predicted. They adopt empiricism to continually get clarity and refine the product. They are on the constant look out for every opportunity to maximize the value of the product. They continually work with the team to make them understand the product needs and get the best value out of their work
2. Ultimate authority of team’s scope of work:
Product Owner leverages the dedicated Development Team to continually shape the product and uncover new knowledge. So, it is essential that the team should only be working on their product needs. The team should not be “switching the context” of their work due to any external authorities directing them to do “some other” work. So, the Product Owner is the ultimate authority on what the team should work next.
Some organization uses the Product Manager role but again it is similar to a Business Development Manager and follow the same working style as mentioned by Mohammed.
Regards
Sanjay