The Role of Management Competencies of Product Owners
Author:
Mark Leon Schrander
Student number:
10510389
Submission date:
17-06-2018 (Draft)
Study:
MSc. in Business Administration – Digital Business Track
Institution:
Amsterdam Business School – University of Amsterdam
Statement of originality
This document is written by Student Mark Leon Schrander who declares to take full
responsibility for the contents of this document.
I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no
sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in
creating it.
The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of
completion of the work, not for the contents.
The Role of Management Competencies of Product Owners
Mark Leon Schrander University of Amsterdam
Abstract
The success rate of Agile IT projects is still relatively low. One of the reasons is the lack of management competencies of the Product Owner. This study explores the role of management competencies and how this influences Agile IT product success. Four working propositions, that are based on a literature review, are created. They form the basis of 16 in-depth interviews conducted at five large Dutch organizations. To conclude the article the findings, as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.
1. Introduction
Classically, IT project management success is measured by three success criteria: Cost, Quality and Time, also known as the ‘Iron Triangle’ [1]. The low success rates of traditional software development methods led to the rise of Agile methodologies [2], [3]. When cost, quality, and time are applied to Agile methodologies as measures for success, success rates of 42% are reported [4].
However, success for Agile projects is not the same as success for traditional IT projects. Traditional processes are aimed at providing assurance and are activity- and measurement-based. Agile methods are different and take into account that everything is uncertain. With these methods the importance of assessing instead of measurement is emphasized [5]. With Scrum, an Agile method, it is difficult to measure success against pre-determined plans because clients can change and adapt these plans every sprint [6]. With these methods perceived success becomes increasingly important. The highly cited study of Chow and Cao [7] also used the perception of Agile professionals to determine critical success factors.
Standish adds three additional criteria to measure success of Agile projects which are: customer satisfaction, delivering customer value, and alignment to strategic goals. Including these new criteria, the Standish Group still reported success rates of only 42% [8]. Also Highsmith [9] stresses the importance of value to the customer, quality, scope, schedule and costs. Ambysoft let their respondents define success themselves and thus measured perceived success. They found a success rate of 55% [10]. We can
conclude that there is still room for improvement for Agile IT project success.
Within Scrum, the Product Owner has often the most difficult and most important role. It is their role to maximize the value of the product [11]. They are the representatives of the client and they give guidance to their team [12]. They are responsible for the financing of the project and they put forward the requirements and objectives [11]. They are also responsible for the success and failure of the project [13], [14]. Their role is key to delivering a successful product [15]. But still projects fail. One of the dimensions that causes project failure are the people. Examples of factors that cause failure are a lack of necessary skill-set and a lack of project management competence [7]. Singh found that Product Owners often lack skills which leads to the failure of Scrum projects [14].
Until now it is not clear how the management competencies of Product Owners influence the success of Agile IT projects. The purpose of this study is to explore how we can better understand the role of management competencies in the success of Agile IT projects. Researching this topic is interesting for academia as well as for managers. Research has only looked into general factors that explain Agile project success [7], [16] . Misra, Kumar & Kumar have looked into it in more depth and identified several ‘People Factors’ that explain Agile project success [17]. However, it is important to take a specific look at the management competencies of the Product Owner as it influences project success as explained above. Researching this topic is also managerially relevant because it could help managers to identify the right person for the job or train them to improve project success. This leads to the following research question: “How can we better understand the role of management competencies of the Product Owner on the success of Agile IT products?”.
This study has an exploratory approach, due to the limited amount of literature that is available on this specific topic. A multiple case study design is chosen with five case studies. In order to have a 360-degree view of the situation team members, PO’s, and clients will be interviewed. The collection of the data will be based on the propositions that are created in section 2, which are based on literature about Agile Project Success and Management Competencies. In section 3, the method is described in further detail.
Section 4 presents the cases. Section five explains the results through a cross-case analysis. In the last section the findings are discussed and suggestions for further research are made.
2. Literature
In order to better understand the role of management competencies of the PO on perceived success of Agile IT projects we first look at success factors of Agile IT projects. After that we look into management competencies which helps us to form four working propositions that will form the basis of the interview guide and further analysis.
2.1 Success of Agile IT Projects
Scrum is a type of Agile project management method. It is a lightweight process to manage and control software and product development in environments that change rapidly [18]. The role of the PO is key to a successful product [15]. A research by Sverrisdottir et al. [19] emphasizes the role of the PO.
Extensive research has been done trying to understand the factors that influence the success and failure of traditional IT projects [20]. Usually, IT project management success is measured by three success criteria: Cost, Quality and Time, also known as the ‘Iron Triangle’ [1]. Shenhar et al. [21] classify this as the first dimension of project success. With the second dimension, customer benefit is added and the third dimension, benefit to the performance of the organization is added. Dahlberg and Kivijärvi [22] came up with a generic model to identify the impacts of IT project success factors. They define IT project success as: “IT projects achieve the business objectives defined for them” [6, p. 4974], with which they cover all three dimensions. In their research they found that, a favorable financial situation, good IT and IT project competencies have significant positive impacts on IT project success. Various IT project competencies such as the competence of the organization to manage IT projects corresponding with the business needs, are researched as a whole.
With Agile, no pre-agreed outcome criteria exist [20]. This is also the case for Scrum where clients can change and adapt plans every sprint which makes it difficult to measure success against pre-determined plans [6]. With Agile methods, it lacks objective success criteria and perceived success becomes increasingly important. A study that dealt with perceived success of Agile software development projects is the research of Chow and Cao [7]. They identified three critical success factors for Agile
projects: Delivery Strategy, Agile Software Engineering Techniques, and Team Capability. Team capability has been found significant in terms of timeliness and cost. One of these attributes is: ‘Team members with high competence and expertise’. França et al. [23] looked at the same factors as Chow and Cao [7], to research critical success factors of projects managed using Scrum. They found that eight of the 25 attributes presented a significant correlation to agile project success. One of these factors is ‘Team members with high competence and expertise’. However, they didn’t subdivide for the roles within Agile teams.
Misra et al. [17] examined which factors from the perspective of Agile Software Development (ASD) will influence the success of projects that want to adopt ASD practices. The factors that were significant were: customer satisfaction, customer collaboration, customer commitment, decision time, corporate culture, personal characteristics, societal culture, and training and learning. One of the factors that was not significant was Competency. However, they only looked at the technical competency of practitioners of ASD.
Begel and Nagappan [24] looked at perceptions of ASD in an industrial context and found that most practitioners of ASD perceived it positively due to improved communication between team members, quick releases and increased flexibility of Agile designs.
We can conclude that success for traditional IT projects and Agile project is something different. With Agile, perceptions of clients become important. Another difference with Agile is that it is not a traditional project with a clear end-point. Objectives can change over time. Therefore the definition of Dahlberg and Kivijärvi [22] is combined with the evolving aspect of Agile, to be able to better define Agile project success. The definition comes: “Products that achieve the evolving business objectives defined for them”.
2.2 Research Propositions
A large base of literature about IT project success and more specifically, success of Agile IT products exists. Also, management competencies are an extensively researched topic. However, it is not clear yet how management competencies of the PO play a role in the success of an agile product. In this paragraph I will explain, based on previous research, which management competencies are important for Product Owners to achieve success.
Abraham et al. [25] have identified the six most critical management competencies to success.
First, they have held a pilot study and after that a survey study has been conducted. They found that: Leadership skills, customer focus, Result oriented, Problem solver, Communication skills and Team worker are the most important management competencies for managers to possess in order to achieve success. Cheng and Dainty [26] have created a competency profile for superior project managers. They found 12 behavioral competencies that distinguish the superior project manager from average project managers. To come to their findings, they have used a focus group and interviews. Based on these two studies the four most important management competencies for Product Owners are selected, which is explained below. These competencies are: Focus on client’s needs, Teamwork and cooperation, Flexibility, and Communication skills.
Focus on client’s needs is defined as: “Focusing efforts on discovering and meeting their client’s requirements, coupled with a desire to help or serve others” [25, p. 37]. This competency is important for Agile IT products because customer collaboration is essential and one of the four values of the Agile Manifesto: “Customer collaboration over contract negotiation” [27]. Furthermore, three of the twelve principles in the Manifesto directly speak to collaboration [13]. Compared to traditional methods, Agile methods improve team moral, which results in enhanced productivity and improved responsiveness to customer needs. This leads to better quality of software [28]. Customer collaboration in Agile software development is a vital feature and an important success factor [29]. It is the responsibility of the PO to identify and prioritize the requirements of the customer [28]. The importance of possessing this competency as a PO also comes forward in several online job offers [30], [31]. This results in the following proposition:
Proposition 1: The management competency ‘focus on client’s needs’ of the Product Owner plays an important role in the success of an Agile IT product.
The second competency, teamwork and cooperation, is explained by Cheng et al. [25, p. 37] as: “Implies the genuine intention to work cooperatively with others as opposed to separately or competitively”. Abraham et al. [25] take their definition of teamwork out a pilot study from Karns & Mena [32] which define it as: “Creation, development and enhancement of team-building (p. 6). Several studies have investigated the importance of teamwork in Agile IT products. The members of Agile teams are jointly responsible for the end product, and thus they must develop shared mental models. They must do this by negotiating shared understandings about the teamwork and the task [33]. Also Stray et al. [34] discuss the importance of
teamwork in Agile teams and provide some suggestions to improve teamwork. A positive effect of the quality of teamwork on the performance of Agile teams exists when team members and team leaders rate team performance [35]. The relevance of being a team player and being able to cooperate as a PO is shown in job offers from several companies such as Tommy Hilfiger, Philips and Liberty Global [36]–[38]. These findings lead to the following proposition:
Proposition 2: The management competency ‘teamwork and cooperation’ of the Product Owner plays an important role in the success of an Agile IT product.
In today’s dynamic business environment market conditions change rapidly, the needs of end-users evolve and new competitive threats emerge [39]. Following a plan can have the negative effect of blinding managers for change. That is why responding to change has more priority than following a plan in Agile methodologies [27]. Cheng et al. [26] describe flexibility as: “remaining adaptable and flexible to solve the problems” (p. 32). Nerur and Balijepally [40] emphasize the importance of flexibility in Agile working methods, they describe flexibility and responsiveness as a goal of Agile. This is also supported by Raman and Lee [41] who state that flexibility is, together with responsiveness and reliability, a result of working with the Scrum software development method. Flexibility of design is one of the benefits to Agile development methods [24]. Also for this management competency, evidence for its importance can be found in online job descriptions of POs [42]–[44]. This leads to the third proposition: Proposition 3: The management competency ‘flexibility’ of the Product Owner plays an important role in the perceived of an Agile IT product.
The Agile Manifesto also directly speaks to communication as a fundamental practice for successful software development [13]. Agile methods trust in, as much as possible face-to-face communication [45]. This continuous exchange of information helps teams with organizing more effectively, this ultimately leads to greater productivity for all stakeholders [18]. Frequent communication supports not only performance and quality but also promotes knowledge sharing in Agile product teams [46]. The PO is responsible for the communication between the customer and the team [47]. The importance of the management competency communication skills also comes forward in job descriptions. An example is a job description from McKinsey where they ask for ‘excellent communication skills’ for their job offer of Product Owner Digital [48] . This makes ground for the fourth proposition:
Proposition 4: The management competency ‘communication skills’ of the Product Owner plays an important role in the success of an Agile IT product.
Below in figure 1, you can find an overview of the four research propositions.
Figure 1: Overview of Research Propositions
3. Method and Cases
Due to the limited amount of available research on management competencies of PO’s and the fact that this contemporary phenomenon needs to be studied in its real-life context, this study employs an exploratory multiple case study design. With this design the reliability and validity of this research will be enhanced [49].
Table 1: Analysis Case 3 Proposition 3
Five organizations are studied, all of these operating in the service industry. All organizations are headquartered in the Netherlands. At each organization one case study has been followed. At three of these cases, four interviews have been conducted. These interviews took place with the PO, Project Manager, and two team members to strengthen the triangulation [50].
Because of availability, case one consisted out of two interviews, one with the Project Manager and the other with a team member. The last case also consisted out of two interviews, these interviews are held with the PO and a team member.
The interviews were semi-structured and the self-developed interview guideline [51] is based on the propositions formed in section 2. All interviews took place one-on-one at the headquarters of the organizations to increase the convenience for the interviewees. All interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed, using coding with GSR Nvivo 12. The method of analysis is summarized in table 1, where Proposition 3 and case 3 is taken as an example.
Table 2 general information about the cases and the functions that the interviewees from this research currently occupy. This information is gathered during the interviews while taking notes. Section 5 provides the cross-case analysis, which is used to analyze the data.
4. Cross case analysis
A cross-case analysis has been performed to improve the likelihood of accuracy and reliability. It also enhances the probability to capture novel findings [52]. In this cross-case analysis each proposition is researched and compared across the cases to find an answer to the research question. All cases that were researched, indicated that their product was a success and that the management competencies of their PO had a positive contribution to this success.
4.1 P1: Focus on client’s needs
Focusing on discovering and meeting the needs of clients is a core competency that underpins effective project management performance [26]. According to all companies in this research, focusing on the needs of clients plays an important role on the success of the project. When describing a highly successful PO, the client of UWV Werkbedrijf states: “Focusing on our requirements and wishes is a key factor of project success”.
Proposition Stance of the organization How? Exemplary quotes “The management competency ‘flexibility’ of the product owner plays an important role in the perceived success of an Agile IT product” Yes, flexibility is important. However, a PO needs to find the balance between flexibility and inflexibility.
1. Balance “[The PO] is
flexible within reason. If it really turns everything upside down than she is not going to do it. But if it is reasonable and if she thinks we can make it than we do it” 2. Importance flexibility “You need to be able to deal with the fact that things don’t go as planned, and you have to change things” 3. Importance inflexibility
“[The PO] can
really say: ‘no we’re not going to do that now. And because of that we can keep the focus on the things that are important”
Table 2: Case overview
The following part will explain how POs focus on the needs of clients and which factors play a role.
Focusing on the needs of clients is according to all companies a competency that takes a large amount of time. Describing a highly successful PO, a team member of KLM states: “I think that the Product Owner also has a lot of contact with the client”.
Also a team member of the IND emphasizes the importance of spending time with the client, and states: “And how those wishes of the client reaches him, is a lot of contact and a lot of meetings”. A consequence of spending a large amount of time with the client is that the PO have less time to spend with their team. However, according to a team member of UWV Werkbedrijf this has no negative consequences: “He focuses well on the needs of the client. He also spends a lot of time on this… But well this is not a problem because when we need him, we can always reach him”. The other three companies do not mention downsides of spending a substantial amount of time with the client.
Another factor that determines how well POs can focus on the needs of clients is their experience with the business. All cases except for the fifth case, state that the experience of POs influences how well they can focus on the needs of the clients, which influences product success. A team member of KLM states: “…in particular his experience within KLM, that he works here for so long. That is a big plus for him as Product Owner”. The IND explains that because of the experience of their Product Owner: “he knows the business of the IND very well, which I think is very important because he can then operate as the client… and he doesn’t have to go back to the client when I ask something”. Which “shortens the line” and thus makes the process faster. Also Basic-Fit emphasizes that because of the experience the Product
Owner has with the business and the organization, processes go faster:
“she is more convincing towards the team, and she doesn’t have to go back to the client to ask how things are working”.
The client of UWV Werkbedrijf states: “What they do is super technical. Generally, as a Project Manager, you can’t understand that level of technique”. Also KLM, the IND, and the Basic-Fit, indicated that the products or services they work on is hard to understand for clients such as the Project Managers. For the PO it is necessary to be able to explain to clients what they do and what they can deliver in order to be able to focus on the needs of the clients.
The client of KLM explained: “He shares a lot, gives a lot of information. I’m very content with the interpretation from the content he can give to me”, when she explained how the PO focuses on their needs. The PO of UWV Werkbedrijf states: “I’m constantly busy with managing and educating the stakeholders. When you reach that level of mutual understanding than you better enter the development process”.
The last factor that explains how POs focus on the needs of their clients is by keep asking questions and feedback. This is pointed forward by KLM, Basic-Fit, the IND, and PostNL. When describing how he focuses on the needs of the client, the PO of PostNL states: “But sometimes you get back to the business, and ask: is this exactly like you want it? And the PO of Basic-Fit states: “and keep continuing asking questions at your client”.
POs focus on the needs of clients by spending a large amount of time with them. Having experience with the business helps them to better focus on the needs. Explaining what they do and asking for
Case Experience with Scrum
Product Function interviewees
1. KLM 5 months Efficient User Interface
Dashboard
Client (Project Lead Digitizing) Team member (Business Analyst) 2. UWV
Werkbedrijf
4 years Connection between systems Product Owner
Team member (Tester)
Team member (Software Developer) Client (Project Manager)
3. Basic-Fit 5 months Visuals for management Reports Product Owner
Team member (Business Analyst) Team member (Business Analyst) Client (Project Manager Property Manager)
4. IND 4 years Front-end components for digital
Requests
Product Owner Team member (Tester)
Team member (Developer & Scrum Master) Client (Project Leader)
5. Post-NL 5 months Salesforce Commercial Services
for Customer Care
Product Owner
feedback during the process, are two other factors that explain how POs can better focus on the needs of clients.
4.2 P2: Teamwork and cooperation
Teamwork is important in Agile software development [34]. All companies in this study mention the importance of teamwork in order to successfully complete a product. The client of UWV Werkbedrijf states: “Teamwork with the Product Owner is the foundation of success”. In this section is explained how teamwork influences success.
The first factor that is important and is mentioned in all the companies is that the PO is available. In cases 1, 2, 4 and 5 it is mentioned that it is important for a PO to be available for the team. The PO of PostNL does this by: “I try to be present at all sessions with the team”. A team member of UWV Werkbedrijf explains what happens if a PO doesn’t spend enough time with his team: “I think he is very busy… If he would be more available things would have gone faster”. Also the IND mentions the same downside of not being available to the team. A team member states: “And that is the downside of our PO, sometimes he is very little available. As a team member you don’t get a response to your questions, and that delays the process”. Furthermore, being available for the client is also important according to case 1, 2, and 3. The client of KLM states: “I really have the feeling of alignment and that we can find each other, because we speak each other very often. I’m really satisfied with the cooperation”. The client of Basic-Fit also emphasizes that the speed of the process decreases when a PO is not available: “If you are far away from each other or can’t reach each other you have more difficulties to keep the development up to speed”.
The second factor of how POs influence the product success with teamwork are activities outside working hours. This is mentioned by case 1, 2, and 5. The PO of UWV Werkbedrijf states: “A good example is that we go out for a walk during lunch almost every day. What I also think is important are ‘pizza sessions’ and dinners, these things really help to form the team”. Extra activities were also performed at KLM. A team member states: “We also have done activities to get to know each other better, to improve the cooperation… Because of the cooperation we have with the PO it goes easier”. Another way of doing activities is by celebrating success, which is mentioned in case 1 and 3. The PO of Basic-Fit states: “What I’ve always found important is to celebrate success, no matter how big the success is”. Later she mentions that celebrating success is important for the success of the product.
Another factor that explains how teamwork and cooperation is improved by the PO is by giving freedom to the team and not always controlling them. In case 1, a team member states: “He doesn’t want to control things just to be the boss over it, in my opinion he cooperates with the team members in a good way… He is a nice PO to cooperate with”. In the third case giving freedom to the team is also mentioned, a team member states: “You see that she takes a step back at the right moments you see this for example in the stand-ups”, when he described a successful PO.
Concluding, a PO has to be available for their team but also for their client. They can improve teamwork by organizing events outside working hours and giving freedom to the team members and not controlling them too much.
4.3 P3: Flexibility
The PO of the IND states: “If you keep holding on to the existing what we did last summer, then you possibly cannot add value. Your services do not improve because of that”. This is in line with the Agile Manifesto which emphasizes the importance of responding to change [27]. All five organizations agreed on the importance of the management competency flexibility. This section explains how flexibility of POs plays a role on the success of Agile IT Products.
The five cases did not agree on the consequences of the flexibility of their PO. UWV Werkbedrijf mentions that the quantity of what can be delivered increases because of the flexibility. Their Product Owner states: “Yes because of that [flexibility] we have delivered more than we initially expected”. Also, the quality of the product is mentioned as a consequence of the flexibility of the PO. The PO of the IND states: “If you stick to the old, your services don’t improve. So, if you stay open for things that others say you can’t do, you can sometimes still get things done, and that improves your services”. A third consequence, that is mentioned by PostNL and UWV Werkbedrijf is saving time. A team member of UWV Werkbedrijf states: “Yes flexibility influences project success, he is open to new things… Eventually it will save time”.
So, all cases state that flexibility of the PO contributes to the success of the product. However according to case 2 and 5 flexibility can also have a downside. When describing his flexibility, the PO of UWV Werkbedrijf states: “And that is when you pay for your flexibility… Because now we had to spend an extra half day on building and testing”. A team member of PostNL states: “If you are in a sprint you could be flexible, but it doesn’t add value. Especially
not if you are flexible on things that were already decided”.
All companies mention that it is sometimes preferred to be inflexible as a PO. A team member of Basic-Fit states: “[the PO] also says no we are not going to do that now. And because of that we can really focus on what is important”. Also, the PO of UWV Werkbedrijf states that it is important for his team that he is inflexible at some point. He states: “You have to be flexible but sometimes you need to stick to your guns and not be flexible to protect your team and your appointments”. The client of KLM agrees, and mentions that a PO should be able to differ from the path that the client has chosen in order to deliver a successful product. She states: “I think that the PO also should be able to say: ’no it suits my team better if we first do that and then do that’”.
So, we can conclude that a Product Owner needs to be able to balance between being flexible and being inflexible. The following quote from a team member of Basic-Fit illustrates this, when describing the success of her PO she states: “[the PO] is flexible within reason. If it really turns everything upside down than she is not going to do it. But if it is reasonable and if she thinks we can make it than we do it”. Also, a team member of case 2 explains this and states: “I think he is in this respect, exactly flexible enough. I mean you can’t always be flexible and keep changing”. 4.4 P4: Communication skills
As explained in section 2, communication is a fundamental practice for Agile teams [13]. All cases agreed with this and stated that the communication skills of the PO played an important role on the success of the product. For example, a team member of the IND states: “I think he [note: the PO] has very good communication skills. I think that that is really important for a PO”. In this section is explained how communication skills play a role on the success of Agile IT Products.
The PO of UWV Werkbedrijf explains that communication skills of a PO can add to the success of a product. He states that: “What they [his Scrum team] need is clarity”. A team member emphasizes this and states: “If you ask him something you get a clear answer, you don’t have to interpret things yourself. That makes it clear and adds to the consistency of the service”. Clarity in the communication of the PO is also seen as an important factor at Basic-Fit. Their client states: “Eventually if somebody is unclear and can’t formulate his things than it is doomed to get a worse result”. A team member of PostNL also mentions the importance for POs to be clear in their communication and states: “If
a PO is clear in his communication that is nice… I think the quality benefits of that”.
Cases 2, 3, and 4 all indicated that the directness of their PO was important for the product success. A team member of UWV Werkbedrijf states: “As a person he is quite direct. If he thinks something, he’ll let you know. I think that is a nice way”. The tester of the IND states: “The PO is sometimes very direct, that is nice… If you have a question he cuts the cord, and we do it that way, that is a good way of working”. However, in case 1 at KLM they indicated that there is a maximum at being direct, a team member states: “Yes I think that he is not too direct… And yes, this adds to the success”.
A third way which explains how POs communicate in order to let the product succeed is by being informal, which is also mentioned in case 2, 3, and 4. The client of UWV Werkbedrijf explains that informal communication improves the pace of the process, he states: “the communication between us is informal. I can simply send him an email, and his response is the answer. I don’t need to fit it in a memo and the PO doesn’t need to approve it… This works much easier, formal communication only delays”.
UWV Werkbedrijf, Basic-Fit, the IND, and PostNL all indicated that openness helps with communication and that it is important for the success of the product. The PO of Basic-Fit states: “I try to be open and transparent… this has an influence on the project success because when you are open than it is taken over by the team members”. At Basic-Fit it is mentioned that the Product Owner needs to be open for feedback because team members than have the feeling that they can contribute and have an influence on the process. A team member states: “She is open for feedback, she gives us the feeling that we have something to bring in and that you as a team member have an influence on the process. I think that is very good”.
The communication skills of POs do influence the success of Agile IT Poducts. POs influence it positively it by being clear in their communication, by being direct, informal, and open.
5. Discussion
Until now research has found that POs play an important role on the success of Agile IT products [15]. A considerable amount of these products fail [8]. One of the important causes is the lack of skills of POs [14]. Until now it was not clear how management competencies played a role. This research adds to the body of knowledge by opening the black box of management competencies and by explaining the
factors. This study attemptsto find an answer on the following research question: “How can we better understand the role of management competencies of the Product Owner on the success of Agile IT products?”.
Focusing on the needs of client’s is important for Agile IT success. POs can do this best by spending a large amount of time with their team. Also, being experienced in the business helps. Lastly, POs need to be able to explain to their clients, what they and their team can do. They also need to continuously ask for feedback, so they can better focus on the client’s needs.
To successfully complete a product, teamwork is important. Also for teamwork, availability of a PO is important for the team. POs can improve teamwork by organizing events such as celebrating successes. The PO should give its team members freedom and not controlling them too much. The third competency of a PO that has an impact on product success is flexibility. POs should be flexible, but only up to a certain extent. Too much flexibility can be negative and can lead to a longer duration of the product than what is necessary. POs need to be able to balance between flexibility and inflexibility.
The final management competency that is tested and influences product success are the communication skills of the PO. POs should be clear in their communication, be direct, informal and open to influence the product success positively.
This study is also managerially relevant because management could use this research to select the best candidates for a PO function. Organizations can also use this research to train the competencies of the POs to improve the product success and score better than the current 42%-55% [8], [10].
This research is not without limitations. Because of the small sample size, the findings of this qualitative study are barely generalizable. Also three out of the five cases have relatively short experience with Scrum, this could influence the outcomes as they possibly have less insights. All five cases classify their product as successful, it would have been useful to include unsuccessful cases.
I encourage future research to take a closer look at factors that explain the failure of products in complement of success factors. Furthermore, as Agile and Scrum become more and more mainstream in organizations, it should be possible to also quantify the findings. In this way more generalizable results can be achieved [53]. It would also add value to conduct longitudinal studies to gain deeper understanding and more insights in how management competencies change along a product.
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