Scrum Master vs Product Owner: The two most important roles in a Scrum team. Though they seem similar, there are significant differences between the two.
In this blog let’s look at these Scrum Master vs Product Owner in detail.
Scrum Team
A scrum team is a group of collaborators, typically between five and nine individuals, who work toward completing projects and delivering products. The fundamental team comprises one scrum master, one product owner, and a group of developers. This team uses the Scrum framework to guide their project management process.
- The product owner maximizes the value the product creates.
- The development team creates products that offer a great user experience and have the right quality.
- The scrum master offers process and method coaching to the product owner, developers, and stakeholders. Additionally, the scrum master acts as a change agent and facilitates organizational development.
In the product management and product development world, each person plays a particular role. Despite that, people tend to mix the roles of different team members up. If you consider how the Scrum Master vs product owner narrative is understood, you’ll see that many people are unclear about their roles. Both roles are relatively niche roles, and most non-product people have little idea about them.
Let’s first understand the Product Owner Role
Scrum Product Owner
The product owner on a scrum team takes responsibility for developing high-value products. They specialize in the oversight of development teams and meticulously analyze project decisions to ensure they align with team goals. Product owners possess a deep understanding of business processes and customer-oriented values.
The product owner should not only understand the customer but also have a vision for the value the scrum team is delivering to the customer. The product owner also balances the needs of other stakeholders in the organization.
So the product owner must take all these inputs and prioritize the work. This is probably their most important responsibility because conflicting priorities and unclear directions will not only reduce the effectiveness of the team but also could break the important trust relationship that the business has with the development team.
Read: Sprint in Scrum
The Scrum Guide defines the Scrum product owners responsibilities as:
1.) Managing the scrum backlog: This does not mean that a Product Owner is the only one putting new product backlog items into the backlog. But ultimately they are responsible for the backlog that the development team pulls to deliver from which implies that the product owner should know about everything that is in the backlog and other people that add items to the product backlog should ensure that they communicate with the product owner.
2.) Release management: The sprint is not a release cycle, but instead a planning cycle. That means that scrum teams can deliver at any time. Ideally, they would deliver frequently throughout the sprint allowing the sprint review to review real customer usage and feedback. However continuous delivery is not always possible and other release models are required. It is important for the product owner to know when things can and should be released.
Read: What three techniques should a scrum master use?
3.) Stakeholder management: Any product will have many stakeholders involved ranging from users, customers, governance, and organizational leadership. The product owner will have to work with all these people to effectively ensure that the development team is delivering value. That can mean a large amount of stakeholder management and communication.
Read: Scrum Events
Product Owner Skills
The following is a summary of the skills required to become a product owner.
- Committed to Vision: Product owners need to be able to communicate the product vision with all stakeholders. That includes explaining product backlog changes, changing requirements, and other vision-related processes.
- Constant Availability: The development team often consults the product owner because they understand the product plan completely. Therefore, they need to be available at all times and open to communication.
- Understanding of ROI: Product owners are responsible for product success and have to focus on its proper production. They are responsible for making sure the ROI is positive in the end.
- Technical Skills: The product owner needs to have an idea of everything from software development to product marketing.
- End-User Perspective: Product owners need to have the ability to think long-term. They need to develop their vision and processes from an end-user point of view.
Product Owner vs Product Manager
Other most commonly confused roles are Product Owner & Product Manager.
Defining a product owner vs a product manager can be challenging as it involves many factors. Moreover, a fragile line separates the functioning of both the authorities.
The product manager works on the user’s need, prioritizes what to build next, and aligns the team around a product roadmap. He is also accountable for the smooth and productive functioning of all the products within the organization.
The product owner maximizes the product’s value by creating and managing the product backlog. They create user stories for the development team, communicate the customer’s voice in the Scrum process, and entail a more close relationship with the product and the development team.
What is a Scrum Master
Now let’s understand the Scrum Master role.
Scrum Masters are responsible for implementing the Scrum approach with the development and engineering teams. This makes their job description fairly straightforward.
The Scrum Master doesn’t manage the team that produces the work, instead, he supports the Product Owner, coaches the team, and makes sure that Scrum processes are adhered to. The Scrum Master is responsible for the Scrum process, its correct implementation, and the maximization of its benefits.
Scrum Master Responsibilities
Common responsibilities for the Scrum Master position are:
- Plan and execute the Agile Methodology with the Scrum development team.
- Monitor the sprint’s progress and remove roadblocks impeding the product’s development.
- Work with the Product Owner to make sure the product backlog is up to date.
- Communicate changes in the product backlog to the development team.
- Motivate the development team to complete tasks on time.
- Report on the success of the sprint.
Scrum Master Skills
- Soft Skills/Communication: Scrum Master’s role is to communicate or held regular meetings with stakeholders, project owners, development team, and other external groups or teams to lead the project and discuss requirements.
- Presentation Skills: With monitoring and creating reports, a Scrum Master must be able to present the progress to the project owners and the team.
- Leadership: Scrum Master’s role is to lead and guide the team to accomplish the project.
- Problem Solving: A Scrum Master should be confident enough to tackle all the issues that come in between to complete a project.
- Change-Ready: The Scrim Master should be open to changes since it’s practically part of their job. They should be able to help team members adopt changes, and should facilitate the change process.
- Certifications and Knowledge: Scrum Masters should have the proper certifications and knowledge associated with product management and the Scrum process.
Product Owner vs Scrum Master
Difference between Scrum Master and Product owner
Now that we have a general overview of the two roles, let’s look at how they are different from each other:
1.) Scrum Master vs Product Owner: Responsibility
2.) Scrum Master vs Product Owner: Nature of Work
3.) Scrum Master vs Product Owner: Accountability
4.) Scrum Master vs Product Owner: Qualities
5.) Scrum Master vs Product Owner: Reporting
I hope that now the Product Owner & the Scrum Master role are distinctively clear to you.
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- CSM and PSM Certification: Everything You Need to Know
- Agile Methodology and DevOps | DevOps and Agile Relationship
- Scrum Master: Roles & Responsibilities
- Agile Software Development Lifecycle
- Agile vs Scrum
- Scrum User Stories
- Scrum Certification Sample Exam Questions
- Scrum Master Sample CV
- Scrum Master Interview Questions & Answers Guide
Next Task for You
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Alicia Campbell says
Great article and visual aid. It helped me strengthen my career path as a Product Owner.
Rahul Dangayach says
Hi Alicia,
Glad you liked the blog.
Please stay tuned for more informative blogs.
Thanks and Regards
Rahul Dangayach
Team K21 Academy