There is no room for excuses because you have the power to make all the necessary decisions. This can be a challenging aspect of the role, as some people handle it well while others struggle. Things nobody tells you about product ownership – Part 1 Product ownership is a role...
What don’t new product owners know but really should?
In my training, I often have people who are stepping into the role of Product Owner into the role. Most are keen to get to grips with the tangible tasks, like creating product backlogs or writing user stories. No doubt, these are important elements. But they represent only a small...
What are the three most common mistakes you see in product backlog refinement?
The Scrum Guide states that product backlog refinement is the act of breaking down and further defining product backlog items into smaller and more precise items. This is an ongoing activity. However, this process of refinement is often misunderstood in many aspects. Mistake 1: Fragmenting functionalities into architectural pieces One...
How much of a difference can a great Product Owner make to an organisation?
In the realm of product ownership, individuals are typically assigned the title of ‘Product Owner’ and, more often than not, they get landed with a heap of requirements or even a comprehensive specification document. What do they do? They diligently key in all this data into a tool like Jira....
Overview of the US Dept of Defense Agile case study
There’s a paper out there called “Status of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Implementation of the Sentinel Project”. The Sentinel project, which was launched after the tragic events of September 11. The FBI realised that they possessed a wealth of information but lacked the ability to connect the dots...
What is value?
In understanding project management methodologies, the Scrum Guide plays a pivotal role. It clearly states that the protagonist’s responsibility is to maximise the value from the work of the Scrum team. However, this leads us to an interesting question – what exactly is value? The relativity of value To me,...
Conway’s Law in 60 seconds
Conway’s Law is a concept I’ve encountered many times throughout my career as a software engineer. It essentially states that a product reflects the internal structure of the organisation that’s building it. This can manifest in various ways, most notably when different departments within a company shape the architectural design...
Hardest part of writing The Professional Product Owner book?
Writing a book takes a significant amount of time and an unwavering commitment. For me, it required dedication, perseverance, and an insatiable desire to tell a story. You have to want to do it, deeply and genuinely. The process may see you sacrificing your evenings and weekends, and sometimes even...
What is Conway’s Law?
There’s an adage in software engineering, Conway’s Law, which carries significant implications for the way we structure our organisations and design our software. Conway’s Law states that any organisation that designs a system will invariably produce a design that mirrors the organisation’s communication structure. To put it in simple terms,...
One-hour coaching included in training course
I’ve had plenty of feedback from from people who have attended my training that training sessions can be a whirlwind of information, with everything looking shiny and new. However, when you return to reality, there might be a question or a hurdle that you’re struggling with. From now on, once...