...
Product Owner (PO) Lead Responsibilities
Backlog Grooming
- See What is a Product Owner?
- Review/Groom/Prioritize backlog (frequency 3X a week minimum) - https://issues.folio.org/secure/RapidBoard.jspa?rapidView=68&view=planning.nodetail
- Prioritize backlog based on
- Chalmers showstopper. Is it detrimental to Chalmers' operations?
- Cap planning prioritization
- Bug Fixes (per Q1 2020 requirements - a sprint must be composed of 40% of bugs either team or core functional)
- Core Functional Bug backlog - https://issues.folio.org/secure/RapidBoard.jspa?rapidView=79&view=planning.nodetail&quickFilter=656&quickFilter=354 (only take items that do not require the team to learn a brand new domain)
- Front-end | stripes-component and stripes-core big test coverage.
- And if all else fails ask yourself - Is the story development ready?
- If story does not require backend development then add the ui-only label to the story. Frontend developers will review this list https://issues.folio.org/secure/RapidBoard.jspa?rapidView=68&view=planning.nodetail# in addition to the entire backlog.
- Backend Stories - Developers should create these stories once work is identified.
- Release Stories - Developers should create these stories.
Standups
- Opportunity for the team to ask questions and get unblocked on stories currently in the sprint - https://issues.folio.org/secure/RapidBoard.jspa?rapidView=68
Blockers
- PO Lead and Scrum master must work together to address blockers. If a story has been in 3 sprints then we have a problem....
Grooming
- Vega is a unique team with multiple POs. PO Lead and Scrum-master must coordinate on making the call to POs for requirements. Team wants several days to review requirements prior to grooming.
- Prioritizes the list of stories for grooming.
- PO lead or Scrum master post the stories for grooming on #vega slack channel.
Team Sprint Reviews
- In Review stories represent work that the is ready for the PO to test on snapshot. It is important that POs review stories at the end of the sprint to assess team velocity.
- If the story has been in the In Review bucket for 3-4 business days then the team can reassign the story to be tested by manual testers BUT not some stories cannot be assigned to this group.
- Also the PO lead may need to step in and verify the user story for doneness. OR gently nudge POs to do testing.
- Another option is for the Scrum master to schedule a recurring review meeting to help move some stories to Done.
Sprint Planning
- Is a required attendee. S/he is the person who will prioritize stories considered for the sprint and will be asked to approve the stories that the team has accepted for the sprint.
- Key thing - inform team of sprint's theme and priorities
System Demos
- Must update system demo slide deck (See example https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1v7Zg4IIqAhrFWWPr1x6CJvknkVpdjWIEfA91OsMUS80/edit) including completed stories filter.
BugFest
- Triage assigned Vega bugs
- Ask Vega to accept P1/P2 bugs into sprint
- Ensure bugs are tested by POs
- Contact Khalilah or Cate to have updated release modules deployed to BugFest
Quarterly Release
- Remind team( including POs) to add Release notes - Cross Release Statistics
- See bugfest for handling hot fixes
- In planning sprints, try to have smaller items scheduled for the sprint of a release. Not always possible but it ensures that critical features are complete and not half complete.
Feature planning
- Work with Cate and Tetyana on Vega feature prioritization and capacity planning: https://issues.folio.org/secure/RapidBoard.jspa?rapidView=99 as needed
- Discuss with Tetyana and AlexK best way to improve feature estimation
- See FOLIO PO Responsibilities
Specific Lead responsibilities
- Capacity planning
- Groom features so that estimates on features are accurate. Typically schedule ahead and send developers' links to features ahead of meeting. (Ideally stories are already written before grooming a feature.) POs typically write UI stories and Vega BE developers write required BE stories. Although sometimes BE stories can be written by POs. For example, the BE stories for truncating the due date based on patron expiration. It's a BE process that requires guidance from the PO on how it's expected to behave.
- Work with POs that utilize Vega to understand their priorities.
- Work with FOLIO Lead PO (Khalilah Gambrell) to prioritize features for release cycles.
- Coordinating and prioritizing work across the POs utilizing Vega for feature development and/or maintenance. The specific POs vary from release cycle to release cycle but they are all circulation POs.
- Groom stories, schedule required POs to be in attendance.
- Ensure POs' stories are complete, broken into appropriate stories based on work required and ready for development (small enough to complete within one sprint and results in small PR).
- Ensure stories are pointed.
- Ensure POs review stories/bug when In Review and/or answer developers' questions.
- Ensure POs answer developers' questions promptly to avoid unnecessary delays.
- Watch blocked stories/issues, work with scrum master or tech lead to unblock them.
- There is also a significant amount of technical debt, tests and/or bug fixes that must also be coordinated and prioritized along with feature work.
- Prioritize backlog - at least weekly.
- Release cycles - ensure team is on-time with releases by tracking release calendar and release activities.
- Sprint demos - coordinate which stories will be demo'ed and by whom, update slide deck.
- Bug fest - extra attention to triaging and prioritizing bugs (sometimes difficult across POs' areas of responsibility but circulation PO Slack channel is a good place to work that out if need be).
- Provide feedback during team retrospectives (or other times) so that team continues to work efficiently and productively. (and maybe even has some fun along the way!)