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Product Owner and sprint status updates.

Last post 05:26 pm February 15, 2016 by Andrzej Zińczuk
4 replies
Nikolaos Friligkos
06:19 pm October 27, 2015

Hi all,

I would like a clarification on the following issue: is the scrum master obliged to provide the product owners with status reports regarding the sprint and/or the user stories of the sprint? I 'd say that since the product owner is member of the scrum team, he/she has to work closely with the developers in order to have a "continuous flow" of updates rater than asking the scrum master for status reports.

Timothy Baffa
10:30 am October 29, 2015

Agile Principle #4:

"Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project."

If this is not happening within your organization, then there are identifiable opportunities for improvement!

The "status report" situation you describe is quite common. It reflects a comfort level with past inefficient practices. Help them to understand the waste involved with such reporting. Introduce them to information radiators around sprint progress like Sprint Burndown charts and Daily Stand-up Meetings.

Good luck.

Nitin Khanna
01:29 pm October 29, 2015

Hi Nikolaos,

I agree that the Product Owner is a part of the Scrum Team and also like the principle Timothy has brought out.

If I were a Scrum Master (SM) asked this question, I would take this as an opportunity to ask and validate whether the (existing?) information radiator needs updating or tweaking. You're still there to serve the Product Owner (PO) and can do this in a mutually acceptable way.

Once in a while, we may have a PO return from an extended vacation / holiday / break so may need a little more support from the SM. However, I would consider this an exception and not the norm.

Some Teams don't use a burndown and the PO is also optional for the daily scrum. Have there been any conversations or norms identified to how information is shared and made visible?

Ian Mitchell
05:49 am October 31, 2015

> is the scrum master obliged to provide the
> product owners with status reports regarding
> the sprint and/or the user stories of the sprint?

No, not at all. However, the Development Team and PO are expected to work together during a Sprint so that transparency towards the Goal is attained. The Scrum Master may need to coach these parties accordingly.

Andrzej Zińczuk
05:26 pm February 15, 2016

it is great opportunity to take PO so he can ask his team directly. Maybe he doesn't even know he can or should.

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