Product owner and acceptance criteria
This is my first time posting on here. I am a new scrum master in an organization who says they are using scrum. The problem is, it's waterfall stuffed into scrum events. The product owners are acting like project managers. We currently use a kanban board to keep track of our user stories. What I am noticing is the team treats the "In Testing" column as a hand-off to the product owners to go through the acceptance criteria. This can be a bottleneck. What are some ways I can help them get out of the "hand-off" mind-set? How do your teams check the acceptance criteria and make sure it follows the definition of done?
** To clarify my last question: How do your teams check that the user stories have addressed and completed the acceptance criteria and the definition of done?
What I am noticing is the team treats the "In Testing" column as a hand-off to the product owners to go through the acceptance criteria.
Consider if there is a better time like backlog refinement to validate the acceptance criteria instead of during a Sprint. The Product Owner and the Development Team members can agree upon this before selecting work into the Sprint during backlog refinement.
How do your teams check that the user stories have addressed and completed the acceptance criteria and the definition of done?
Not sure I fully understood you here but, if the work satisfies the conditions specified in the Acceptance criteria and similarly the Definition of Done, then the work can be considered done. It's kinda like checking items off a to do list and ensuring everything is working as expected. The Product Owner can work with the Dev Team to validate the work, similarly feedback can be received from the stakeholders during the Sprint Review. Hope this helps.
This can be a bottleneck.
How do you know there is a bottleneck, unless the team have a WIP limited workflow that is being impeded?
In a waterfall, project-managed situation you would expect a large batch of work to accumulate and then be “handed off”, typically at a defined stage-gate. Is there such a stage-gate here?
How do your teams check that the user stories have addressed and completed the acceptance criteria and the definition of done?
It depends on your acceptance criteria for an item/user story and your DOD for an increment. Just to highlight acceptance criteria is best to be at user stories/items level and DOD for an increment as a whole.
Thank you for the replies.
Ian, many of the user story testing is done towards the end of the sprint by the product owners -- at this point, the product owner now has a list of those stories waiting to be tested. Since it's at the end of the sprint, some of those stories aren't able to be checked off because the PO finds issues with what was built.
Yes, there used to be a fairly defined stage-gate (Designers hand-off to Devs then hand-off to Content, etc). We are now working to move away from that, but it's still a work in progress.
My advice is to acknowledge that you still retain a stage-gate, even if the waterfall approach has been largely condensed within a Sprint cycle. The challenge is one of limiting work in progress instead, so items are completed early and often.
Regardless of whether or not a Product Owner checks acceptance criteria, he or she ought to be assured that the emerging work is “Done”. Many teams provide that assurance by writing suitable tests before the development of a backlog item begins. They do just enough work to ensure that the tests pass, and then try to improve their solution without the tests failing.
The resulting test harness can provide a measure of assurance. It might reasonably be seen as part of the increment, and its production as a necessary condition of “Done”.
Hello All,
As am preparing for the PSPO-1 assessment, insights from SME would help further to know and also clear tests.
1.When can PO change the acceptance criteria?
2.Can Sprint start without statement of 'Ready'.
3.is there a concept -Sprint zero(0) and PO can change the acceptance criteria of product which phase?
4. if project manager ask for progress report from Scrum master, will he/she be accountable to should push it to PO or is there no project manager involved in SCRUM?
1.When can PO change the acceptance criteria?
Perhaps the "acceptance criteria" you refer to describe a level of Done which the Developers are accountable for meeting. How might that influence matters?
2.Can Sprint start without statement of 'Ready'.
The Scrum Guide says "A new Sprint starts immediately after the conclusion of the previous Sprint."
3.is there a concept -Sprint zero(0) and PO can change the acceptance criteria of product which phase?
Are the concepts of Sprint Zero or phase described in the Scrum Guide?
What makes the so-called "Sprint Zero" you mention special? Does it respect the definition of the Sprint, or is it a fake construct used to cover up certain organizational issues?
Typically, the term Sprint Zero refers to a go-faster stripe on a setup or initialization phase in a stage-gated culture.
4. if project manager ask for progress report from Scrum master, will he/she be accountable to should push it to PO or is there no project manager involved in SCRUM?
Does the Scrum Guide mention having a Project Manager?
I'd suggest that the project management function might be refactored over all three Scrum accountabilities, and that it might principally lie with the Developers. They would monitor their own progress towards their Sprint commitments.