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Subproduct owners as part of the dev team

Last post 10:32 pm February 21, 2023 by Thomas Owens
2 replies
Johannes Ehm
07:17 pm February 21, 2023

I am a member of a dev team where two team members have also a subproduct owner role. The role is basically a mix of dev team member and sub product owner. I am wondering whether it is advisable that dev team members are product owners at the same time? The reason for this approach is the general understanding, that the team has to work on two sub products in parallel and that the product owner can not do the work of two sub products in parallel. 

Ian Mitchell
08:34 pm February 21, 2023

I am wondering whether it is advisable that dev team members are product owners at the same time?

It isn't advisable that Developers also be Product Owners, but neither is there any rule against it. Scrum is minimally prescriptive and encourages teams to make the right decisions for the context they are in. They are best positioned to do so.

The reason for this approach is the general understanding, that the team has to work on two sub products in parallel and that the product owner can not do the work of two sub products in parallel. 

Who has that "general understanding"? Who has determined that a team can work on two so-called "sub products" at the same time, but a Product Owner cannot? Has this rule been decided by the Scrum Teams themselves?

Thomas Owens
10:32 pm February 21, 2023

What, exactly, do you mean by "subproduct owner"? The Scrum Guide allows the Product Owner to delegate carrying out various pieces of the work while remaining accountable for it. There are some things that could very well be delegated, in full or in part, to a Developer by the Product Owner and it would work well.

I'm also curious what you mean by "subproduct". Are these actual, distinct products? Or are they components or modules in a larger product? There are many strategies for organizing products into portfolios or decomposing products into components and modules. Both may be valid, depending on the context.

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