Product Owner: the things they often don’t mention

Product Owners: things that are rarely mentioned

Having an effective Product Owner (PO) on software development projects is a hugely useful and important role, whether using Agile or other methods.  The way the PO is described, especially by many promoting some Agile methods, is at best ambitious.  In many circumstances, it may not even be close to possible. Pretending we have one when we don’t (by the measures below) is going to be a real challenge.

The purpose of this post is hopefully to help you decide whether you really have one or not.  Pretending we do, when we don’t, is seldom going to end well.

Note: none of the following relates to “classroom” or “text-book theory”.  It reflects real-world human behaviours and issues that are commonplace around projects. These challenges, if not recognised and properly overcome can wreck any project very easily.

Product Owner resposbilities as described in Agile:

The bits rarely mentioned

Conclusion:

Having a participative, knowledgeable PO with the authority and time to do all of the above is priceless on any project (whether using Agile or not).  However, you have to ask yourself, on a case-by-case basis, do we realistically have one (with the substantial amount of time that will be required across all iterations).  If there is any significant doubt around this question it could be very challenging to attempt to use Agile development methods.

Related pages:

If you agree with any of the above you may find the following pages useful:

1. https://www.pmis-consulting.com/time-for-a-grown-up-debate-methods-and-scrum/
2. https://www.pmis-consulting.com/why-the-current-focus-on-methodologies-is-totally-wrong/
3. https://www.pmis-consulting.com/issue-with-certification-training/
4. https://www.pmis-consulting.com/project-management-group/