Agile Method Tailoring in Distributed Enterprises: Product Owner Teams

M. Bass, Julian

Abstract

This paper explores practitioner descriptions of agile method tailoring in large-scale offshore or outsourced enterprise projects. Specifically, tailoring of the product owner role is discussed. The product owner identifies and prioritizes customer requirements. But in globalized projects, the product owner must reconcile large numbers competing business interests and generate prioritized requirements for many development teams. The study comprises 8 international companies in London, Bangalore and Delhi. Interviews with 46 practitioners were conducted between February 2010 and May 2012. A grounded theory approach was used to identify that product owner teams comprise nine roles: Groom, Prioritizer, Release Master, Technical Architect, Governor, Communicator, Traveler, Intermediary and Risk Assessor. These product owner roles arbitrate between conflicting customer requirements, approve release schedules, make architectural design decisions, provide technical governance and disseminate information across teams. Understanding these roles will help agile coaches guide large scale agile teams.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 2013 IEEE 8th International Conference on Global Software Engineering
• Start Date: Aug 26, 2013
• End Date: Aug 29, 2013
• Publication Date: Sep 30, 2013
• Deposit Date: Jan 11, 2024
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/icgse.2013.27