Benefits of having a full-time Product Owner

Having worked with different development teams from teams with little to no knowledge of business value to teams with vast knowledge in working out the business values themselves without having to regularly consults with the product owner in pointing them towards the right direction in making sure software deliveries go hand in hand with securing business values alongside the development.

Commonly in the Agile world, many organization tends to have someone from the Management or Director level take charge of the product owner role alongside their official title. i.e a technical director still acting as a product owner or a Solution Architect whose role should be just technically inclined and not interact with clients who are the primary users of the software being developed by the team.

Listed below are the reasons why having a full-time product owner always work in favour of the team.

  1. The full flow of communications 
  2. Commitment 
  3. Attention to details
  4. Dedicates all his/her time in knowing the business needs 
I used to work in a company where the Managing Director happens to be the product owner and all the product decisions lay in his hand and this slowed down the communication between the MD and the team as the team find themselves a bit reluctant asking their Managing director questions from time to time and they end up getting majority of the questions answered through the Scrum Master but just imagine if they've had a dedicated product owner working with them in same office environment without having to pipped through the glass if he's free or having a conference meeting or speaking on the phone. 

Another thing is a full-time Product Owner is much more committed than a make-shift product owner who doesn't even have time to regularly partake in the daily stand up, even though as a Product Owner you are not subject to attending daily stands up by the rule of scrum but everyone in the Agile knows a Product Owner that often visit the team during the stand up tend to give much more needed attention to the team as he knows where to come in and help the team with any difficulties and stories clarification as it may be required by the team. 

A dedicated Product Owner pays attention to every detail even to the extent of giving sharing feedback with the Scrum Master and the team as needed and often revisit the team product goals in order to meet the business value expectation.

Lastly, a good benefit of having a full-time Product Owner is knowing all the business needs as their much more closer to the customer than anyone else in the organization. 

In conclusion, I'll say a company that can afford to have a full-time Product Owner should never cut back in hiring one as it will save the company vital time and financial value than making use of a make-shift Product Owner also there people in the organization that can be promoted to the role of Product Owner full time if they've spent a lot of time understanding the business and have a good relationship with the development team.

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