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Product Owner allowed to participate in daily scrum?

Last post 08:38 am January 30, 2023 by Efosa Charles Odiase
14 replies
11:57 pm February 25, 2016

Hi all,

According to the Scrum framework, can the Product Owner participate in the daily scrum?

Background
The Scrum Guide, states on page 9 that "The Scrum Master enforces the rule that only Development Team members participate in the Daily Scrum".

But other sources, for example, "Agile Product Management with Scrum" from Roman Pichler, in the "Daily Scrum" section states that:
"As the product owner, you should attend the meeting whenever possible. It’s a great opportunity to
understand the progress being made and to see if the team needs help (for instance, you might need to answer questions, review work results, or help remove impediments)."

And in another section:
"As the product owner, you can help resolve the situation by inviting stakeholders to the sprint review meetings and the Daily Scrums."

So now I am not sure if it is mandatory that the Product Owner (and stakeholders) do not participate in the daily scrums. Can someone answer this?

PS: I saw a similar question in this forum at https://www.scrum.org/Forums/aft/202 but didn’t manage to understand in the end if the Scrum Framework enforces this or not. Since the post is old (2012) I created this one


12:35 pm February 26, 2016

To attend and to participate is not the same.
Don't forget the aim of the Daily Scrum.
It's a key inspection point for the Dev Team to synchronize their work and forecast the next 24 hours.
IMHO, the PO can attend, in order to help the Dev Team by providing some usefull informations, but he isn't expected to participate.
Beware of having people outside the Dev Team in the Daily Scrum. TJust by their presence, they will change the Daily Scrum. If they are managers, the risk is they turn the Daily Scrum into a "report" meeting.
Only the Dev Team members are required for the Daily Scrum.


12:46 pm February 26, 2016

> So now I am not sure if it is mandatory that the Product Owner
> (and stakeholders) do not participate in the daily scrums.

Yes, it is mandatory that they do not participate in Daily Scrums. But as Olivier rightly says, "To attend and to participate is not the same".

> And in another section:
> "As the product owner, you can help resolve the situation by inviting
> stakeholders to the sprint review meetings and the Daily Scrums."

It's reasonable for a PO to invite stakeholders to a Sprint Review, and the Guide makes that clear. But inviting them to the Development Team's Daily Scrums? That's like inviting people to a party you haven't even been invited to yourself.


03:29 am October 5, 2019

This discussion reflects old 2016 version if the Scrum Guide. The 2017 version indicates that "other" could participate in the Daily Scrum event:

“The Daily Scrum is an internal meeting for the Development Team. If others are present, the Scrum Master ensures that they do not disrupt the meeting.”

So " Yes, it is mandatory that they <PO-s> do not participate in Daily Scrums. " , thankfully, is outdated in realization that banning good resources is not optimal.

Scrum does not say anything about linguistics of  "attend" and "participate" but has Scrum Muster to ensure disruption is avoided.


09:49 pm October 6, 2019

So " Yes, it is mandatory that they <PO-s> do not participate in Daily Scrums. " , thankfully, is outdated in realization that banning good resources is not optimal.

Yakov - what do you mean it is outdated and banning good resources is not optimal?

I believe the Product Owner is covered by that "if others are present" statement. So they can attend, but not participate, as the Product Owner is not part of the Development Team.

 


02:45 pm October 7, 2019

Hi Sergio Miguel

Daily Standup is used for 

1. To know the progress on an individual in the team

2. And the entire team would know the progress of a sprint

I think PO involvement in Daily standup is not mandatory however not prohibited. 

He/She is the optional invitee, if the PO wants to see the progress of sprint, can join the daily stand up. 

 

 


07:54 pm October 7, 2019

Ripandeep,

Please recognize that there are several inaccuracies and errors in your post:

  • It is not the Daily Standup.   It is the Daily Scrum.   This is not an insignificant difference.
     
    There are reasons why one should use the term Daily Scrum.   Proper terminology is one.   Also, referring to the event as a "Standup" risks the possibility it will be conducted as a status event, and not as a point in time for the Development Team to assess progress toward the Sprint Goal and identify the plan for that day
     
  • The Daily Scrum is not used to know progress of an individual on the Development Team 
     
  • The Product Owner is indeed prohibited from being involved in Daily Scrum discussions, unless the Development Team inquires directly with the PO
     
  • The PO should be able to assess the state of a sprint at any point in time, if sprint information is being radiated properly.   The Daily Scrum should be one of several ways for a PO to see sprint progress

03:12 pm October 8, 2019

@Timothy 

Apologies for using SAFE terminology here. I also understand the fact that Daily Scrum should be used for the status event. 

However, my aim was not something that you have interpreted. I was not saying that the scrum team would assess an individual's work or progress of the sprint. 

Rather this was to encourage the entire team that all are together and working together where everyone speaks about their work(obviously three checkpoints).

Some time development team would set push back or not interested in ceremonies for any reason. As a scrum master, you need to look into this situation and encourage the team and tell them the business values of each of the ceremony. 

The most important thing is as a scrum master how you could facilitate/serve the team towards achieving their goals.

Maybe my way of expressing the previous post was different but I have shared some of my experiences. 

 

 

Now coming to PO involvement in Daily Scrum, in my opinion, PO is not strictly restricted to join the Daily Scrum however PO does not suppose to intervene in the Daily Scrum. 

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 


01:29 pm October 9, 2019

In some projects, I have played the role of PO and  "Attended" Daily scrum meetings. I just listen in.   

There are times,  that the PO needs to listen in as  the  product is reaching certain critical  /Maturity  levels and its good to hear what happening with DT and if need be inform SM  to help out with direction within the team and org.  

 

 

 


11:02 am February 25, 2021

when must product owner be present at daily scrum ? choose best answer .

a)when the scrum master ask them to attend.

b)when they need to represent the stakeholder's point of view.

c)when there are impediments to discuss

d)When the PO is actively working on items from the sprint backlog.


08:19 am February 26, 2021

d)When the PO is actively working on items from the sprint backlog.


04:24 pm June 9, 2022

So bottomline, PO can attend the DSU on invitation but not participate except asked to...right?


10:08 pm June 9, 2022

So bottomline, PO can attend the DSU on invitation but not participate except asked to...right?

The Daily Stand Up is not a Scrum event.  That is a eXtreme Programming artifact. 

The Daily Scrum is a Scrum event and it is for and run by the Developers.  They can choose to run it in any way as long as the focus is on the progress towards achieving the Sprint Goal.  This the most relevant excerpt from the Scrum Guide for this thread.

The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute event for the Developers of the Scrum Team. To reduce complexity, it is held at the same time and place every working day of the Sprint. If the Product Owner or Scrum Master are actively working on items in the Sprint Backlog, they participate as Developers.

There is no other mention of who can attend in the Scrum Guide.  Nor is there anything that says no one other than the Developers can attend.  However, since the focus on progress towards the Sprint Goal and is an event for the Developers to adapt their plans to achieve the Sprint Goal, no one but the those actively working on items in the Sprint Backlog should be involved in the discussions. 


02:10 am June 12, 2022

I highly recommend this by two PST's from Scrum.org:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwlshrYQv1w


08:03 am January 30, 2023

This is an issue scrum.org has to address. Personally, I think it's okay for the Product Owner to attend so long he does so in a capacity that doesn't interfere with or there to clarify minor issues.

For examination/certification purposes I think scrum.org should have this settled in black and white print.


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