Product Owner’s in Agile Project Management

First of all the Product Owner represents the Product Stakeholders, where stakeholder is a collective term that includes customers, users, and sponsors.  The Product Owner, therefore, acts as the voice of the Customer.  While representing the customer, they are accountable for delivering Value to the Business.  Since adding Value to the product lies in the Product Backlog, the Product Owner is, therefore, the individual responsible for managing the Product Backlog.

Product Owner Responsibilities

 Whilst delivering value to the business is a critical task, their responsibilities also include:

* Setting the Product Goals as well as the Product Vision

* Creating and also maintaining the Product Roadmap

* Making Product decisions

* Ensuring visibility of the Product Backlog

* Optimising the Development Teamwork

* Setting Release Goals

* Scheduling Product Tasks

* Supporting the Development Team

* Accepting or rejecting work done

* Interfacing with Stakeholders and Customers

Business Vision

The Product Owner is also the one empowered individual who understands the Business Vision.  So they represent the needs of the Business and Users, hence they know what the Requirements are, and are therefore able to make decisions.

Product Owner Typical Day Activities and Tasks

Since the Product Owner has many responsibilities and they consequently have a rather busy daily schedule.  A typical day may therefore involve:

* Updates the Release Plan and refines the Prioritised Product Backlog

* Define the Done Criteria

* Help to create and approve User Stories

* Define Acceptance Criteria for all User Stories

* Clarifies User Stories and the Requirements to the Scrum Team

* Provides feedback to the Scrum Master and also the Scrum Team

* Coordinate with the customer on release plan as well as the release schedule

Meetings

In addition to the daily responsibilities, Sprint Review Meetings should be conducted for each Sprint. They may also attend the Sprint Retrospective Meeting and should conduct the Sprint Planning Meeting.

Chief Product Owner for Large Project

Finally, in the event of a large project, multiple Scrum Teams may be used.  Rather than one large Scrum Team, teams can work on small project sections.  Due to the many teams, a Chief Product Owner may be a required. They care for the project backlog, while the individual teams work on the team backlog.  In addition, they are responsible for directing multiple Product Owners.  Especially relevant to this individual is resolving issues seen by multiple scrum teams.

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