Which TWO of these does Scrum make the Product Owner accountable for?
Professional Scrum Master I, objective 1. Understanding and applying the Scrum framework medium
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The options
Choose 2.
Correct Developing and explicitly communicating the Product Goal
Correct. Developing it is only half; the Guide adds explicitly communicating it, because a Product Goal nobody can repeat back cannot be planned against.
Correct Ensuring that the Product Backlog is transparent, visible and understood
Correct. All three words are load-bearing: a backlog that exists in a tool nobody opens is neither visible nor understood, and the artifact then cannot support the inspection that depends on it.
Not correct Deciding which Product Backlog items the Developers will take into the Sprint
Wrong. Through discussion with the Product Owner, the Developers select the items. The Product Owner shapes that choice by ordering the backlog and explaining value, not by making the selection.
Not correct Producing the plan for how the selected items will be turned into an Increment
Wrong. That is the third topic of Sprint Planning and it is at the sole discretion of the Developers — nobody else tells them how to turn Product Backlog items into Increments of value.
Not correct Setting the Definition of Done for the product
Wrong. Where the organisation has no standard, the Scrum Team as a whole creates a Definition of Done appropriate for the product. It is not the Product Owner's to set alone.
Why
Four accountabilities sit with the Product Owner, all of them about the Product Backlog: developing and explicitly communicating the Product Goal, creating and clearly communicating items, ordering them, and keeping the backlog transparent, visible and understood. Everything about how the work gets done sits with the Developers. The reliable test for a Product Owner question is whether it concerns what the product should be, or how it will be built.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- Scrum Guide section Product Owner
- What it says
- The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Scrum Team.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a set from objective 1 and space the ones you get wrong.
Practise Professional Scrum Master I
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