Scaling the Product Owner Role

At XP Days Benelux 2013 we talked about why and how the Product Owner role is scaled in organizations. You can find my slides here (pdf).
 
[EDIT 1.2.2014]
InfoQ Interview on the topic can be found here.

 

Abstract

 

Come to this workshop to learn how to scale the Product Owner role in order to harness the true potential of self-organizing Agile teams. You will learn by doing, but you will be also hear a real-life story.

 

Using Agile development methods development teams improve their capability to deliver through transparency and predictability. However, this does not bring the outcome companies are seeking if the developed features are not the right ones. The product owner role in Scrum simplifies the interface between business and development. This obviously brings immediate relief in many cases, but in practice, the responsibility of the Product Owner is far too wide for a single person in all except the most simplistic scenarios. Naturally the pragmatic Product Owner works with number of domain experts and other stakeholders. Things in real-life get even more complicated, as organizations have multiple product lines, yet the development should be aligned with the company’s strategy. To add to the challenge, for example embedded system development including own hardware platform development brings additional concerns, such as less flexibility than software development and dependency on external suppliers. To date, the practical information on how to do this remains limited.

 

During this workshop you will will create a framework for scaling the Product Owner role. Continuous customer collaboration at different levels, with different focus, will also be covered. Your work will be guided with a real-life story linking the exercise to reality.