Applying Agile Product Ownership within Teams
Enterprise Product Manager=Agile Product Owner…I don’t think so…
Posted on November 19, 2007
Filed Under Articles | 14 Comments
By Jennifer W. Fawcett, Agile Product Owner Coach, agileproductowner.com
There are reasons and roles within a successful team that allow this to work (even if it’s not completely agile). I advocate that are two product-related roles within an agile enterprise:
- The Enterprise Product Manager, who typically reports into marketing, and who owns the RELEASE
- The Agile Product Owner, who typically reports into engineering, and who owns the ITERATION
Let’s define the responsibilities of these roles a little further. On the surface, Product Managers may look like Product Owners, right? Not necessarily in an enterprise agile environment,
Let me review the fable of the Chicken and the Pig, which is often used in the daily Scrum. The chicken suggests that the two involve themselves in a scheme involving ham (or bacon) and eggs (some suggest a breakfast, others suggest a restaurant). In reply, the pig always notes that, for the chicken, only a contribution is required (as a chicken can simply lay an egg and then resume normal activities), while for the pig a “total commitment” (or total sacrifice) is needed (as in order to make ham or bacon, the pig must be slaughtered).(1)
So, if pigs are committed, and chickens are Involved, which role do product owners and product managers play within an organization who has adopted the gospel of Enterprise Agile? Let’s look at the roles with the perspective of releases, and Iterations.
Product Managers have extremely full plates. Not only to are they responsible for the 4 P’s (Product, Pricing, Positioning, and Promotion), but as described above they are responsible for delivering product to market. They worry about the big picture, live in the future, and are always thinking “what’s next”. Product Managers are Committed to the Release. At the Release level, they are pigs. Product Owners are Involved with the Product Managers and the Development Team’s success through the Release, and at the Release level, they are the chickens.
Product Owners are committed to the Iteration. They live in the present, and are deeply involved in the product’s day-to-day evolution. They have a dotted line between Product Management and Product Development, and act as a communicator or conduit between the two teams. The Product Owner must have a deep understanding of each story, and demonstrate the ability to communicate details to the development team. Product Owners know that Product Managers don’t have time to dive into the details of each story for each iteration. Therefore, their job is to involve to Product Management enough to the get the level of detail and elaboration necessary, and then to further elaborate stories for development in time to meet the iteration boundary. At the Iteration level, Product Owners are Committed, and are responsible for the success of each iteration. They are the pigs. Product Managers involve themselves enough to communicate and prioritize the vision of the release, but at the iteration level, they are the chickens; Agile Product Owners do not replace Enterprise Product Management in any way; rather, they empower Product Managers to better deliver future market strategy and prioritized release requirements by enabling a full commitment at the Release level.
In my first paragraph, I alluded to some not-quite-so-Agile Product Managers. How did we get a product out the door without the entire team adopting Agile? The success was via the Commitment of the Agile Product Owner to the iteration, and the Commitment of the Enterprise Product Manager to the release. Even in a non-agile organization, the Product Manager always has a commitment to the organization to deliver a product to market so that role has always been clear and predates any agile transformation. This commitment is driven by the financial impact to the company of a successful product, and probably to the Product Manager’s paycheck. However, it is the new role of the Agile Product Owner that helped to enable both Development and Product Management’s success by committing himself deeply into the Iteration, living in the day-to-day collaboration and communication between Development and Product Management, and freeing up Product Management to work on the commitment to the vision and future of the product.
Comments
14 Responses to “Applying Agile Product Ownership within Teams
Enterprise Product Manager=Agile Product Owner…I don’t think so…”
Leave a Reply
[...] Jennifer Fawcett has started a new blog - The Agile Product Owner. Check out her recent post: Applying Agile Product Ownership within TeamsEnterprise Product Manager=Agile Product Owner…I don?… OK, so the title is a bit long. I thought agile was about less documentation, at least that what [...]
I think the concept of these two roles is right on, although I’m not sure about the names. To me, the “owner” is the customer-oriented person who is committed and has ultimate commercial responsibility, while the “manager” is the chicken, the hired hand who makes sure the work gets done.
In practice, the chicken sounds like a development lead or architect, but I guess that’s implementation detail – on a conceptual level it’s useful to have a more generic label that doesn’t get tied into typical job titles. But there again, “product manager” is a confusing label because there are often people with this title in the marketing department.
It would be nice if there was a “commitment” metaphor that didn’t involve calling anyone a pig or a chicken.
I agree with Kief on the naming of the roles: they seem to be inverted in terms of responsibilities. Owning means putting in the bacon, while managing is more like chicken-like work (client relations, monitoring and communication). In our organization’s model we called the chief engineer (we are embedded systems and devices) the product owner (your product manager), while the day-to-day roles are left to the team, or when the project is to large, to a project liaison (which is also a team member, that is, a pigskin). I wonder if you really need more chickens in the food chain?
This seems sensible to me, having worked in a number of teams of many sizes, on projects of many sizes.
The “product manager” here is responsible for all aspects of the whole product (or product line). The “product owner” here is responsible for making a portion of the product happen.
I mentally rephrased the two role names as “release owner” and “iteration owner”, and I think I like that better. In smaller companies and product groups, one person can (or must) wear both.
This also seems to me yet another instance of the “strategic / tactical” split that appears in so many organizations. They are both vital, both complementary, but so distinct that it often works for the better to split the focus across at least two different people (even teams or groups).
I think you missed out a word here:”Product Owners are Involved the Product Managers and the Development Team’s success through the Release, and at the Release level, they are the chickens.”
Applying Agile Product Ownership within TeamsEnterprise Product Manager=Agile Product Owner…I don’t…
Jennifer W. Fawcett, Agile Product Owner Coach at agileproductowner.com provides some insights into Agile Product Owner role….
Kief and Edward, great thread! We could use a new metaphor, so feel free to suggest. The Chicken and the Pig have been much overused in the scrum environment
(no pun intended)
I fixed that typo. Thanks Danni!
[...] Dean Leffingwell Building on my own experiences as well as Jennifer Fawcett’s whitepaper (agileproductowner.com) and the webinar from Catherine Connor and Rally, there are indeed some some substantial changes in [...]
I personally have found that the Pragmatic Marketing framework can be used to effectively address the manner in which we bring together agile product ownership with more traditional product management responsibilities. At the conceptual level, the Technical Product Manager role can easily lend itself to the role of the product owner, with the Director and Product Marketing Manager roles focusing on the other aspects of the traditional product manager role. I’d invite all interested parties to take a look and consider…
I’m new here, just wanted to say hello and introduce myself.
[...] finally, Jennifer Fawcett of Agile Product Owner says it most succinctly: There are reasons and roles within a successful team that allow this to [...]
[...] The Cranky Product Manager knows that many Product Management bloggers believe that this problem is solved if you separate the market / customer-facing Product Manager [...]
I work in a Product Management organization that separates the role of Product Manager and Release Manager. The Product Manager owns the strategy, roadmap, etc. and the Release Manager owns the delivery of the release and making sure everyone in the company is ready to support the new offering. Our current release process is based on waterfall development and gives cross functional teams time to prepare. Where can I find information on how release processes may be impacted by AGILE development if one key driver is releasing more frequently? Thanks!