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Scrum Basics

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The Scrum Team: Product Owner

2:28 with Matt Anthes-Washburn

The Product Owner is sometimes referred to as the “voice of the customer,” though the role entails more than that. The Product Owner is responsible for determining what the team might work on and ordering the items so that the highest-priority items are done first.

Terms

User Story: A product backlog item constructed to describe the value to the user. User stories define who the user is, what they need, and why they need it.

Further Reading

The Scrum Guide See: Definition of Scrum, by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland

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    The product owner is sometimes referred to as the voice of the customer. 0:00
    Though the role entails much more than that. 0:04
    The product owner is responsible for determining what the team might work on 0:07
    and ordering the items so that the highest priority items are done first. 0:10
    These items are sorted in a product backlog, 0:15
    which we will learn more about later. 0:18
    In weighing a backlog item's priority, the product owner must consider the value to 0:20
    the business and the value to the customer. 0:24
    Because of this, 0:28
    a product owner must spend time with the stakeholders to understand the business 0:28
    needs and with customers to understand their needs as well. 0:32
    As you will see later, no one but the product owner has the authority 0:36
    to ask the development team to work on a particular item. 0:39
    Therefore, stakeholders outside the team should check in with the product owner 0:43
    to advocate for a particular feature or change. 0:47
    Generally, the product owner is responsible for 0:50
    the vision of the product as well as its road map. 0:53
    The product owner should be able to communicate clearly 0:56
    where the product is going and what major things lie ahead in the product road map. 0:59
    Product vision and 1:04
    product road map are often considered part of the discipline of product management. 1:05
    There are a lot of different ways organizations assign the responsibility of 1:09
    product management, and SCRUM does not define how that should be done. 1:13
    Regardless of a person's job title, the SCRUM framework makes clear 1:17
    the responsibility that a product owner has to the SCRUM team. 1:21
    The primary responsibility of the product owner is to maintain the product backlog. 1:25
    We'll go into more detail on what this means later. 1:29
    For now, it helps to think of the product backlog as a to-do list for the team. 1:32
    The product owner makes sure that the right items are on the list, and that 1:37
    the list is in the right order, with the most important items first or at the top. 1:41
    The majority of product backlog items, or 1:45
    PBIs, are written in the form of a user story. 1:48
    We'll go into more detail about how to construct a user story later. 1:51
    For now, it's helpful to understand that a user story is a special 1:55
    form of product backlog item, written from the point of view of a user. 1:58
    The product owner works to craft user stories that define who the user is, 2:02
    what they need, and why they need it. 2:07
    The product owner must also be available to the team during the sprint. 2:10
    Development team members check in regularly with the product owner. 2:14
    To get further definition on back log items or to review the work they've done, 2:18
    a transfer of information between the product owner and 2:23
    the development team is not a hand off, but a collaboration. 2:25

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