Why Can’t We Get Good Product Owners?
Weak product owners are a persistent problem in Agile development teams. Agile teams are like a Ferrari engine waiting for a capable driver to take advantage of all it has to offer.
In an Agile development process, business is responsible for providing clarity and direction on what needs to be built. Developers are great at figuring out how to build and deliver the software. The lack of a good product owner is not only frustrating to the developers, but also can waste resources, lower productivity, impact morale, and reduce return on investment (ROI). In the current economy, who can afford to take this approach?
Teams will find ways to mitigate the effects of a weak product owner. One team, whose velocity decreased because they lacked clarity on what needed to be built, came up with a new way to work: they assigned a senior developer to act as business analyst to groom the backlog and provide clarity to the team, interacting with the customer/product owner weekly for a few hours. This resulted in the team’s velocity almost doubling. But this meant one of the most senior developers was no longer available to code and pair.
Many companies intellectually understand the value of a good product owner in the Agile process, but many do not set their product owner up for success. Often the most knowledgeable individuals are selected to be the product owner, but this person is already overloaded. A product owner who is part-time or invests only a few hours a week will impede the team’s ability to be more productive. Determing which items on the product backlog have the highest business value, then making that clear to the team, takes time and focus.
Sometimes businesses don’t recognize the value of a focused and engaged product owner. A product owner who can deliver a clear vision and roadmap, while maintaining a prioritized and groomed backlog, ensures a win/win situation between the business and the development teams. Businesses that maximize business value, adapt quickly to changing needs, speed time to market, and deliver high quality results have a better chance of thriving in a down economy.
So empower your product owners to fully engage with the development team. Don’t skimp on product owner time for working with the team, and provide the prioritization and product backlog grooming that will make the team more successful. Try putting the right driver into the process and you will get better results.
Tags: Agile, product owner
February 20th, 2009 at 6:56 am
I could not agree more. One thing to look out for when designating someone to be the proxy product owner is the risk of building up significant communication and decision debt on the business side. Taking on this debt makes the team go faster at first, but will probably have a significant negative impact on velocity when the debt comes due (usually when the developed software comes into contact with the real business stakeholder community).
Minimizing this debt requires an empowered product owner. Empowered to make sure all business stakeholders are kept on the same page (avoiding communication debt) and empowered to make real decisions on behalf of all business stakeholders (avoiding decision debt).
If no one on the business side is empowered to be a good product owner, it’s unlikely that someone farther removed from the business will be.