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Client Collaboration and Feedback

Last post 08:25 pm October 5, 2020 by Simon Mayer
5 replies
09:02 am October 4, 2020

Hi everybody!

I am currently working on a project right now where we work closely with our clients (they’re part of all our events other than Sprint Retrospective) to the point of them controlling our Sprint activities and our overall process (requesting for mid Sprint Reviews, deciding scopes per Sprint which should be PO’s work, doing user story acceptance/rejection before an item is tagged as done).

I agree that shorter feedback loop is very important in software development, but is our set-up with our clients good and sustainable? I know that customer collaboration is more important than contract negotiation but I am a bit conflicted and honestly my gut tells me that there is something wrong here. What do you guys think?


09:33 am October 4, 2020

What does the PO think about this situation, and how effectively would you say product ownership is being represented?


09:52 am October 4, 2020

What does the Scrumguide say about collaboration with stakeholders? And, a interesting question, what is the difference between  PO and  stakeholders?


12:49 pm October 5, 2020

I have no problem with "stakeholders doing user story acceptance/rejection before an item is tagged as done". Feedback loops and stakeholder collaboration that tight is something many teams spend a lifetime working towards. Many don't even get close.

However, the Scrum Team should strive to stay self-organizing and focused, and help the stakeholders understand the thin line to walk between collaboration and, uhm... "meddling", I guess.


06:19 pm October 5, 2020

stakeholders doing user story acceptance/rejection before an item is tagged as done

Why is the development team not able to test if the item is done?

 

Feedback loops and stakeholder collaboration that tight is something many teams spend a lifetime working towards.

100% agree, except checking if something is done!


08:25 pm October 5, 2020

we work closely with our clients (they’re part of all our events other than Sprint Retrospective) to the point of them controlling our Sprint activities and our overall process

Do the Scrum Team members see this as collaboration? Put another way, do they consider themselves a self organizing team?

 

And to respond from a different angle… are the clients behaving as though they are members of the Scrum Team? If so, what would be gained and lost by formalizing this, and have them participate in the Scrum events as team members (including the Sprint Retrospective)?


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