Who is the Chief Product Owner?
As with most new offerings, Agile scrum started with small projects that could be easily broken down into components for delivery by one scrum team. As organizations have embraced Agile scrum and found that the framework is useful in quick delivery of minimally viable products, larger efforts have found their way under the Agile Scrum banner.
Scaling Agile to larger efforts requires new skill sets to be defined out of the old ones. One of the critical efforts in Agile scrum is around the management of the product backlog and the definition of success for the delivery of features. The Chief Product Owner in a scaled Agile scrum program is crucial for successful program delivery.
The Chief Product Owner
The chief product owner is an unofficial role in the world of scrum. The originators of scrum, Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber, have defined a product owner as the keeper of the product backlog. This individual is responsible for taking the vision of the product sponsor and effectively communicating this to the scrum team. Well-planned features identified on the backlog are the result of this collaborative effort. In large scale Agile projects, this becomes increasingly important as the chief product owner must have a broad depth of understanding of the product to be delivered.
Some organizations have experimented with product ownership for large scale efforts by committee. This is not very effective because no one person has ultimate responsibility for delivery of the overall backlog. It is challenging to have one person effectively manage a large scale Agile project backlog. It is challenging to have multiple individuals communicating the holistic vision of a large project. The role of a chief product owner with a direct relationship to the business sponsor is important. It is important to understand that this does not mean that the other product owners will not have a chance to collaborate with key stakeholders. Agile scrum relies on a framework of transparency and collaboration so it will be important that the chief product owner does not use this as an opportunity to control the communication flow.
Recommended Further Reading
The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course: