Align towards business synergies
Description
Where a Value Stream is too large to be supported by a single Product Owner and Team, use Business perspectives to inform splitting by independent but valuable subsets of the Value Stream.
Example: A company with a Composite Value Stream builds several Apps for different markets. On one hand, it makes sense to view the entire set of Apps as one Product, which would be directed by a single Product Owner. However, if this proves too challenging for one Product Owner, then one approach to break down the Value Stream would be to group the Apps that are more likely to serve similar types of customers under the same Product Owner. The team structure would also naturally follow the same model.
Rationale
A Product Owner's mission is to maximise the value delivered by their team or teams. To achieve this, they must have clear sight of what is valuable to the customers and the organisation. If the subset of the Value Stream that they support does not result in direct value, but instead must be consumed or passed onto other teams before value can be realised, then a number of challenges arise:
- Backlog items are challenging to express as valuable outcomes and instead are likely to be articulated in technical language.
- Prioritising a technical backlog to maximise business value becomes challenging.
- The Product Owner will be less autonomous and more dependent on joint decision-making with other Product Owners.
- The team will not be able to operate with as much autonomy and is likely to suffer greater interdependencies with other teams.
- The team will struggle to understand the purpose and value of their work, which will lower motivation and lead to less optimal design decisions and subsequent rework.
- The Definition of Done will be further away from a product that is of releasable quality.
- Progress is much harder to understand, making planning more uncertain.
- Team output is difficult for stakeholders to understand and provide constructive feedback.
Related Principles
- End-to-End Product
- Avoid Components
- Organise around value streams
- Minimise unnecessary complexity
- The Product Owner is accountable for sustained end value
- Minimum Viable Product Owners
- Limit Product Owner Mental Workload
- Each team "sees" exactly one Product Owner
- Outcome is the primary measure of success
- Collective accountability in case of Product Ownership Group