What is a Product Owner typically responsible for during a Sprint? (choose the best two answers)

During a Sprint, the Product Owner's focus remains on maximizing product value. This involves two key ongoing activities. First, they continuously collaborate with stakeholders, users, and customers to gather feedback, validate assumptions, and ensure the product development is aligned with market needs. Second, they work with the Developers on Product Backlog refinement. This is not a one-time event but an ongoing process of adding detail, estimates, and order to Product Backlog Items to ensure the backlog is prepared for future Sprints. These activities ensure that both the current Sprint's context and future work are clear and valuable.

A. Creating financial reporting is a project management or financial function, not a responsibility of the Product Owner in Scrum.
C. The Developers are self-managing; they create and update their own work plan (the Sprint Backlog) during the Sprint.
E. The Product Owner is actively engaged during the Sprint, collaborating with stakeholders and the Scrum Team.
F. The Daily Scrum is an event for the Developers. The Product Owner's attendance is optional and not a mandated responsibility.

1. Schwaber

K.

& Sutherland

J. (2020). The Scrum Guide. Scrum.org.

For Correct Answer D: "Product Backlog refinement is the act of breaking down and further defining Product Backlog items into smaller more precise items. This is an ongoing activity to add details

such as a description

order

and size. Attributes often vary with the domain of work." (p. 10).

For Correct Answer B: The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing value

which necessitates stakeholder collaboration. The Sprint Review is a formal event for this

but the collaboration is continuous: "The Product Owner may also invite stakeholders to Sprint Planning to provide advice." (p. 8) and is the key liaison during the Sprint Review (p. 9).

For Incorrect Option C: "The Developers are always accountable for... Creating a plan for the Sprint

the Sprint Backlog;" and "They are self-managing

meaning they internally decide who does what

when

and how." (p. 6).

For Incorrect Option F: "The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute event for the Developers of the Scrum Team... If the Product Owner or Scrum Master are actively working on items in the Sprint Backlog

they participate as Developers." (p. 8). This clarifies their attendance is not a required PO duty.

2. Bass

J. M. (2019). Understanding the Role of the Product Owner in Scrum: A Systematic Literature Review. In Product-Focused Software Process Improvement (PROFES 2019). Springer

Cham.

This review synthesizes literature on the Product Owner role

consistently identifying "backlog management" (refinement) and "stakeholder communication" as core responsibilities that occur continuously

including during Sprints. (Section 4

"Synthesis of the Literature"). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35333-92