PSPO I Exam question was a bit tricky
Hello All,
Unfortunately, I failed the PSPO I exam with 82.5%, but for me, it was harder than PSM I.
There were some questions, that I found a bit tricky and one of them mentioned the job focus of the Product Owner.
So, to the point, the PO should be collaborating with stakeholders and customers for new requirements, but should he focus on writing clear user stories, or communicating project release status and strategies to the stakeholders?
Why I find this question tricky, is because the PO is responsible for writing clear user stories and also communicating early and often strategies.
Or maybe the release status and strategies are communicated during the Sprint Review Meeting?
What are your thoughts?
Thank you !
It's important for a Product Owner to communicate releases and strategy, but how important is it for them to write any user stories at all?
Hi Ian, and thank you for replying!
Since the term "User Story" is not mentioned in the Scrum Guide, this automatically means that it is not important to write them (in the form of user story).
However, the Product Owner is accountable for the effective product backlog management, which includes also: Creating and clearly communicating Product Backlog items.
If we say that PBI and User Story is the same, then isn't it important for the PO to write PBI's (User Stories)?
If yes, then it is also a focus on the job of a PO.
Please correct me If I am wrong, but I am still confused :)
Thank you !
If we say that PBI and User Story is the same, then isn't it important for the PO to write PBI's (User Stories)?
Note that the Scrum Guide mentions the PO is accountable for 'Creating and clearly communicating Product Backlog items' yet also mentions 'The Product Owner may do the above work or may delegate the responsibility to others. Regardless, the Product Owner remains accountable.'
Many Product Owners are busy with strategic Product Management activities such as release strategies, business cases, budgets, branding, talking to customers and stakeholders, understanding the competition, etc., and they move beyond being a user story scribe.
If we say that PBI and User Story is the same, then isn't it important for the PO to write PBI's (User Stories)?
They're not the same. User Stories are just one possible means of expressing those items. Also, the Scrum Guide makes it clear that their creation and communication may be delegated to others, even though the Product Owner remains accountable.
Hi Chris and Ian,
What you say, makes totally sense now.
Thank you for the input and the clarification.
What I always try to do with Product Ownership related questions is to link them to the 3V's of the Product Owner: Vision, Value, and Validation (validation if the value is achieved for the users).
In which ways does "writing clear user stories, or communicating project release status and strategies to the stakeholders?" actively support or Vision, or Value, or Validation?
I feel this is not really the case.
When it comes to "writing clear user stories", I learned from brain science that "who writes, learns". Given we want the Developers to understand the "user stories" (as mentioned by others, this is just a complementary practice to formulate Product Backlog Items), it feels that it is better they write them. While writing, they'll have questions. The Product Owner, or even better the users (the experts in the problem) can then answer these and raise the understanding of the Developers.
Hope this helps.
Feel free to shoot more questions!
PS You might be interested in my blog posts about the fundamentals of the Scrum framework. If so, please check out this page: https://boostyourscrum.com/professional-scrum-foundations-series/