Management Bug: Lack of Product Owner

A MngtBug is a problem, cause or impact in a human manager’s decision which produces an incorrect or unexpected result.
Every week we share a little bit of our knowledge base on social media and our newsletter. Since we believe the Management Bugs are common and typical, every description is created and adapted from articles, blog posts and definitions from other sources and authors.

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Details

This week’s “Lack of Product Owner” is an often ignored problem.

By definition, the Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Development Team.
(Extracted and adapted from https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#team-po)

The Product Owner plays a critical role in being the voice of the client. He needs to understand the market, the competition, and the users’ pain points.
(Extracted and adapted from https://www.bignerdranch.com/blog/the-important-role-of-the-product-owner-leveling-up-our-clients/)

Another of his roles is to ensure communication is constant with the team and their ideas are discussed and transparent.
(Extracted and adapted from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/importance-product-owner-steve-feroze-csp-csm-cspo)

The Product Owner is one person, not a committee. He may represent the desires of a committee in the Product Backlog, but those wanting to change a Product Backlog item’s priority must address the Product Owner. This means that the person responsible for managing the Product Backlog is the Product Owner.
(Extracted and adapted from https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#team-po)

Product owners are an integral part of most Agile teams. They bring their business acumen to the team and act as the voice of the customer. Teams without a product owner who is close at hand will either make decisions based on their knowledge of the situation or wait until they can talk to the product owner or other stakeholders. Time is money both in terms…