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PSPO - Product Development progress and lack of transparency

Last post 10:36 pm January 30, 2023 by Thomas Owens
3 replies
04:50 am January 29, 2023

Hi Members,

Preparing to attempt for PSPO I. I need some clarification for below situation

In Sprint Review, in case the Product Development progress is not clearly visible to stakeholders and its also lacking transparency who should we consider accountable?

The Scrum team as a whole OR Product Owner

Per scrum guide 2020, scrum team as a whole is accountable for creating the increment and presenting it to stakeholders during Sprint Review, and progress toward product goal is discussed. So as per my understanding Scrum Team should be responsible for the above case not just Product Owner.

Kindly share your inputs on this case.


08:24 am January 29, 2023

In Sprint Review, in case the Product Development progress is not clearly visible to stakeholders and its also lacking transparency who should we consider accountable?

The most important gauge of progress is the delivery of Done, valuable increments every Sprint. Nothing gives more transparency over progress than that.

Since the Scrum Team as a whole is accountable for creating a valuable and useful Increment every Sprint, you have your answer.

It would then be incumbent upon the team to identify and resolve the actual cause of poor visibility. For example, it is possible that:

  • the Product Owner has not organized the Product Backlog in a clear way, or
  • the Developers have failed to satisfactorily account for quality and the rate at which work is therefore Done, or
  • the Scrum Master has failed to manage people"s understanding of the framework and their accountabilities within it, or

any or all of the above or something else.


01:05 pm January 29, 2023

When you say "Product Development progress" my mind shifts away from increment focus to higher level Product Goal and Product Backlog focus. If there is a lack of transparency at the Product level, I believe this falls under PO accountability

Ensuring that the Product Backlog is transparent, visible and understood.

The Scrum Team may be upholding it's accountability of creating valuable, useful Increments but stakeholders may not understand how it aligns to Product Goal or is represented in Product Backlog if transparency is not there (visible and understood).

 In terms of context with PSPO I preparation. The question as worded doesn't align to questions I have experienced. Is this from Scrum.org practice exam? Third party exam? Is this the actual wording from the question?


10:36 pm January 30, 2023

Do you know why stakeholders feel that progress isn't clearly visible or which artifacts are lacking in transparency? I would typically associate progress with delivering at least one, if not more, usable product Increments every Sprint, progress can also be shown with the Product Goal and successive Sprint Goals that move closer to the Product Goal or visibility in the status of work through the Product and Sprint Backlogs.

Once you understand the specific concerns around transparency, you can figure out ways to make the work the team is doing and their progress toward their goals more visible and transparent to the stakeholders, including who can contribute more to ensuring transparency based on their role(s) on the team.


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