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Can a Product Owner work in multiple scrum team?

Last post 05:35 pm January 3, 2020 by Daniel Wilhite
4 replies
Nitish Kumar
11:40 am January 3, 2020

One Scrum Master can work in multiple scrum teams irrespective of those teams working on the same product or different.

Can a PO also work in multiple scrum teams?

Olivier Ledru
11:44 am January 3, 2020

The Product Owner is owner of one product with one Product Backlog, whatever the number of dev teams working on this product.

So yes, the PO can be the PO for multiple Scrum Teams

Ian Mitchell
12:03 pm January 3, 2020

Can a PO also work in multiple scrum teams?

From your reading of the Scrum Guide, is there any prescription against this arrangement? Also:

  • What are your thoughts on this matter regarding the implementation of a Nexus?
  • Under what circumstances might it be inadvisable to have the same person work in multiple teams?
Srithar Kandasamy
03:15 pm January 3, 2020

Yes, PO can work in multiple scrum team.

If the PO is part of multiple scrum teams, it could become the blocking point for the scrum team's progress. SM should address this case when arises. Am I right? 

Daniel Wilhite
05:35 pm January 3, 2020

@Olivier Ledru's statement is the core of this answer. 

The Product Owner is owner of one product with one Product Backlog, whatever the number of dev teams working on this product.

But I have encountered too many cases where a Product Owner tries to or is expected to own more than one product. This is usually where the problems arise lead to the tales of horror everyone uses to say Scrum won't work. 

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