Product Owner and Dev Team Role

Please correct me if wrong - as per Scrum Guide, the dev team interacts with stakeholders and users only during Sprint Review.

Can you clarify where, in the Scrum Guide, you see this restriction prescribed?

Ok, it seems that I may have assumed otherwise. But is Scrum Guide explicit about this? This could be a hidden and between the lines thing. I remember getting a similar question on my PSM exam and that I could have attempted as wrong (may be that's why this statement from the book caught my attention). 

Out of all events - only Sprint Review is one when the stakeholders come in for inspection, that could be the reason of the assumption. Also, PO is the person who talks with users and collects requirements and refines them etc. If PO is too busy to talk to Dev, should they talk to stakeholders for clarification? Is it not the PO's job to clear their doubts. The above statement in the book is causing me worry. 

PS - Now i know why it is important to interact with experts. 

thanks,

Vikas

To @Ian's point, I have never seen that statement in the Scrum Guide.  I think you may be coming up with your answer because most of the mentions of stakeholders are within the section describing the Sprint Review.  But even then, I want to point out this single statement at the end of the Scrum Values section.

The Scrum Team and its stakeholders agree to be open about all the work and the challenges with performing the work. Scrum Team members respect each other to be capable, independent people.

How could you be open about the work and challenges if you limit your conversations with stakeholders to the Review or require all of that to go through the Product Owner?  Also, wouldn't you want to gain continuous feedback in order to deliver the best and most needed increment/value every sprint?

Hi,

Out of all events - only Sprint Review is one when the stakeholders come in for inspection, that could be the reason of the assumption. Also, PO is the person who talks with users and collects requirements and refines them etc. If PO is too busy to talk to Dev, should they talk to stakeholders for clarification? Is it not the PO's job to clear their doubts. The above statement in the book is causing me worry. 

>> What do you think can happen if Dev team interacts more frequently with the stakeholders ?

The Sprint Review is the "formal" event where everyone can share feedback about the increment & context, but nothing prevents the Dev Team from asking any experts outside of the Scrum Team in case they have a question or need some feedback.

Especially at scale, you can't assume the PO to have all the answers and to have enough time to give every single detail to the Dev Team.

Be carefull, it doesn't mean everybody can go and disturb the Dev Team at anytime ;-)

@Daniel, your point regarding the continuous feedback is correct. But if there is a meeting among dev, PO, and a user (stakeholder) regarding some clarification on a PBI, who will have the final say? PO, right? In case PO is absent, then:

1. Will such a meeting happen? Will SM be involved? To what extent?

2. Who will have the final say on the outcome of the PBI? If user, what if the PO disagrees, when he returns after few hours/days? If dev, same scenario may apply.

@Harshal - One word, confusion. The very reason we don't want developers not to be confused on a PBI outcome, is that the outcome is decided by PO, what he wants (due to any reasons). If the dev interacts more with stakeholders, multiple people may have multiple opinions, only PO's opinion must hence stay, right?

Apologies - I may sound utterly confused.

My experience - I was a QA, part of Scrum Team 9 years ago. I was designing some test cases, and was confused about one of the acceptance criteria. The PO was on leave. I consulted the SM, he had some understanding and along with BA he resolved the problem. Later on the PO agreed to what was done. I am not sure what could have happened in case the PO may have disagreed.

@Olivier - The Sprint Review is informal. https://scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#events-review

And I agree that dev should be disturbed. But what about vice versa? Can they move beyond the PO, all the time for the clarification. Will not PO loose importance? At one place we say that we must respect his decisions and he is the market and product expert, and on the other hand, overriding him to get clarifications. Should he not at least be informed about such a meeting, etc. between user and dev?

thanks,

V

@Harshal - One word, confusion. The very reason we don't want developers not to be confused on a PBI outcome, is that the outcome is decided by PO, what he wants (due to any reasons). If the dev interacts more with stakeholders, multiple people may have multiple opinions, only PO's opinion must hence stay, right?

I get where you're coming from, however, the PO decides on the priority. As the outcome is to be created in the (very near) future, the outcome can't be decided exactly upfront. Maybe during the build of the PBI, new issues may rise, new insights may be gained, the actual value is different the value hypothesis we created. 



So, yes, if there are multiple different opinion, the PO is the one to consult, has he decides on priority and contribution to the vision etc etc. But he/she isn't the single point of knowledge, as he/she can be informed by the PO team (subject matter experts, marketing, end users) on the contents of the product that is to be created. It is (relatively) impossible to know every single detail of the product by heart.

And I agree that dev should be disturbed. But what about vice versa? Can they move beyond the PO, all the time for the clarification. Will not PO loose importance?

Saying it like this would suggest that transparency is limited to a great extent. Of course, if the dev team needs clarification they can consult with both the PO and the customer/end user. It depends on multiple factors, like the gravity of the question. Does it impact the Backlog prioritization? Or do we just want to check what kind of blue button there should be in the interface? In the former it should be the PO, maybe with parts of the dev team for technical input. For the latter you can imagine the PO doesn't really need to spend his time on that. But always remember to communicate the outcomes of the discussions, so the PO stays informed.