Читать книгу Agile Auditing - Raven Catlin - Страница 23

The Product Owner owns the “what” of the project. They create a prioritized list of all the things to need to get done (Product Backlog). The Product Owner maximizes the value of the product being delivered (the audit). The Product Owner determines the priorities for Agile teams and decides when a product is complete by assessing value from the customer's perspective. In some Agile variants, the Product Owner is referred to as the “initiative owner” (Rigby, Sutherland, and Takeuchi 2016). The Product Owner is not typically the customer, but someone who represents the customer's interest, voice, and mindset during the project. The Product Owner must have the Agile mindset; this is a critical role. Agile Teams cannot select just any manager to serve as the Product Owner in the same way managers are currently selected to manage traditional teams and projects. Even if one is a highly competent manager, that does not mean they have the right mindset and skills to be a successful Product Owner. Choosing the right Product Owner is as important as selecting an Agile framework. In the words of J.J. Sutherland, “if you keep doing things the way you have always done you will get the results you always got before. Good Product Owners are the key to winning with Scrum” (Sutherland 2019).

The Product Owner must understand the customer and the customer's needs. The Product Owner owns the Product Backlog (also known as a “portfolio backlog”), which is a list of requirements and deliverables for a project. The Product Owner works directly with the business community, stakeholders, customers, and users to obtain an understanding of the community and user needs. “For Product Owners to succeed, the entire organization must respect their decisions. These decisions are visible in the content and ordering of the Product Backlog, and through the inspectable Increment at the Sprint Review” (Schwaber and Sutherland 2020). The Product Owner prioritizes the Product Backlog list (see Chapter 8, Implementing Agile Auditing: The Audit Planning Process for more details on Product Backlogs).