By Ashley Christman, LSS MBB, SSBBP, CSM, CSPO
Having previously taken the Certified ScrumMaster training with Bernie Maloney at the KAIP Academy, I had an understanding of the various Scrum roles and general knowledge about what they did.
However, I was interested in learning the role of the Product Owner, which is what led me to taking the Certified Scrum Product Owner class.
The two-day class started with an overview of Scrum. While this was a refresher for me, it was new to some of the people in the class, and the instructor enhanced it with personal stories from his experiences of working in and with Scrum teams for companies like HP and TiVo.
One of the things I really wanted to know was how to groom a backlog and split stories. Through a combination of lecture and hands-on opportunity, I was able to understand how to make sure the backlog was groomed and refined for the development team to be able to work on.
Thanks to this class, I was better able to see the full picture of using the Scrum methodology and how the team interacts. It has made me more comfortable serving as a Product Owner in an agile environment and has given me more of an understanding of the delicate balance the Product Owner must maintain to keep the development team moving and the stakeholders happy.
The role of a Product Owner in some ways reminds me of some of the ways a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt may interact with stakeholders and team members on a Six Sigma Project.
Similar to a Black Belt, the Product Owner is responsible to the success of the project and spends a lot of time not only working through the scope of the project, but also communicating with all the other parties involved. Like a Black Belt, the Product Owner may coach the development team and facilitate Scrum events in the same manner a Black Belt would facilitate improvement events.
For me to be able to draw parallels between these skills—in two separate disciplines that seemingly have nothing in common—really helped stimulate understanding of how to better use my new Product Owner toolbox.
Interested in taking your career to the next level by getting Certified Scrum Product Owner certified? View all upcoming KAIP Academy courses here!
About the Author: Ashley Christman is a former nurse and Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with a background in organizational change management and Lean. Her extensive experience in healthcare quality and performance improvement has transformed a number of organizations and led to better outcomes in patient care, reductions in wait times, and more. Her experience includes consulting for the CA Department of Public Health as well as multiple large hospital systems, including Santa Rosa Memorial and Petaluma Valley Hospital. Her passion for improvement and educating others led her to begin teaching in order to help entrepreneurs, professionals, and leaders create a sustainable culture change by empowering them to be change agents and champions of innovation. You can find her online at @learnlivelean on Twitter and on LinkedIn.