20 October 2009 at 13:10.44 pmboos

Marion,

One thing - you imply that the PO isn't a stakeholder at the Daily Scrum; I would assert they are. They are responsible for ensuring any subject matter experts are available and/or bring the information needed for the developers themselves. While this information isn't actually used at the Daily Scrum, the tasks of ensuring it is available is a Daily Scrum task. Our POs would tend to say something like, "Yesterday I ensured James got together with Robert and Fred on the electric loan data entry screen, unless they speak up about needing him again I understand they got everything they needed. Today I have the data definitions and routing rules needed for those loans. I haven't seen any impediments."

That is their "pig" participation; the remainder is knowing the status, which is more of a "chicken" role.

Anyway, that is how included our PO effectively. We found taht if we actively assigned the PO meaningful tasks of ensuring the right information was available at the right time (and become the coordination point for other subject matter experts on what was being built), then they become more integrated in the team and understood their role better.

Just a slightly different view of the PO to an otherwise excellent article!

Cheers! Paul

22 October 2009 at 13:10.12 andreat

Hi Paul,
I respectfully disagree on this, it is important to keep the focus of the Daily Scrum on the Development Team. The meeting is the essence of the Empirical approach of Scrum is the moment when the team inspects and adapts to what happened since the previous meeting.

The goal of the meeting is for the team to understand how to better focalize their effort in the direction to reach the Sprint Goal. They are the actors and the Scrum Master is facilitator of the meeting, none else is committed therefore none that is not a Team Member is allowed to interrupt the discussion. It is primary responsibility of the Team Members to take care that they have all the information available before the Daily Standup meeting, that is because without those information they won't be able to inspect & adapt effectively.

The Product Owners needs to be available at any time, not only at the Daily Scrum, and they are member of the Scrum Team, that has as goal to produce the right product at the cheapest possible cost. That said, it is a very good best practice to have the Product Owner(s) attend at the Daily Scrum, because the keep in touch with the team, and they can expose concerns or invite the team to negotiate after the meeting is completed.

Keep in mind there must be equilibrium between Team responsibility and capability to execute, as well as for the Product Owner. They cooperate in a Scrum Team with the Scrum Master, but still there are shared responsibility and mutual commitments that shouldn't be broken, or Scrum would loose the equilibrium :-)

Best
ANdreaT