06/11/2019 Professional Scrum Competency: Managing Products with Agility | Scrum.

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Professional Scrum Competency:

Managing Products with Agility
Managing Products with Agility results in products that
provide valuable business outcomes, increased
exibility to respond to change, and greater
transparency for investment decisions in product
development. A clear and understandable Product
Vision helps to align product development with the
organization’s Business Strategy including strategic
goals and/or business vision, while a focus on Product
Value addresses the continuous improvements to the
product. Product Value includes considerations such as greater transparency in
value-based decisions and organization-wide, value-driven approaches. Key tenets
of this Focus Area include continuously de ning value, measuring actual value
realized, validating assumptions, and analyzing trends.
 
The process of aligning Product Vision with Product Value is iterative and
incremental, and it is managed through continuous re nement of the Product
Backlog. E ective Product Backlog Management requires input and collaboration
from a variety of Stakeholders and Customers - including the Scrum Team - and
requires evolving techniques to ensure appropriate levels of transparency based
on the needs of stakeholders. Similarly, Forecasting and Planning uses an iterative
and incremental approach to manage complexity, change, and the realities of
business obligations. Attention to these Focus Areas results in development and
delivery of valuable product increments within 30 days or less. Additional features
and bene ts of these approaches include increased transparency to progress,
more realistic and evolving forecasts to manage stakeholder expectations, and
applying appropriate release, sales, contracting, and partnering strategies.
 
The Product Owner is typically focused on Managing Products with Agility, however,

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06/11/2019 Professional Scrum Competency: Managing Products with Agility | Scrum.org

pro ciency in this competency is required by all Scrum Team members, Agile
Leaders, and organizational stakeholders to ensure that the full value of using the
Scrum framework and an empirical
(/) process is achieved. 

Key Focus Areas

Within each competency, a number of Focus Areas provide a more detailed view
of the knowledge and skills you require to master that competency.

Forecasting and Release Planning

Complex problems and the application of an empirical process requires a speci c
way of planning, estimating, and forecasting. Practitioners should be able to apply
agile forecasting and release planning techniques, and understand the value of
di erent approaches. They should understand which approaches work better in
di erent situations. They should also understand how releases should be planned
while dealing with complexity, dependencies, and value creation.

Product Vision
The Product Vision de nes the purpose or goal that the product serves, and is
de ned by the “value” that the product strives to deliver. It should be the "true
north" for the product and should not be a ected by the day-to-day di culties or
challenges of delivery. The Product Vision only changes if the goal of the product
changes, such as when a business pivot happens. Practitioners should be able to
describe what a product vision is and what techniques should be employed to
both build a vision and make it transparent. They should also understand how to
use a Product Vision to drive strategy and execution, and how to build a vision that
motivates, communicates, and provides constraints for delivery.

Product Value
The ultimate goal is to deliver value to the customer and stakeholders. But value is
complex, made up of long-term and short-term impact, internal and external value,
and indirect and direct value. The practitioner should be able to understand how to
de ne value for context, and apply it to the work they and the team do. They
should be able to manage others' understanding of value and apply di erent
techniques and practices for de ning, communicating and measuring value. They
should understand the connection between value and empirical process, and how
value should be the driving factor of the Product Vision.

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06/11/2019 Professional Scrum Competency: Managing Products with Agility | Scrum.org

Product Backlog Management

The Product Backlog is a key artifact within Scrum. It is an ordered list that
(/)the product. The Product Backlog provides
describes what is needed in
transparency into what is happening to the product for the team, organization, and
stakeholders. The practitioner should be able to describe what a Product Backlog
is and apply a variety of techniques for managing the backlog. They should also
understand how to make the Product Backlog transparent and how to manage
stakeholder expectations associated with the backlog.

Business Strategy
A product lives within the context of a business strategy. That strategy describes
how the Product Vision will be executed in a broader context. A practitioner will
understand techniques for exposing business strategy and show how it drives the
product. They will understand approaches, such as Lean Startup and Design
Thinking, and how those a ect the ow of ideas from strategy to execution. They
will understand how an empirical process a ects the execution and feedback of a
strategy.

Stakeholders and Customers

E ectively working with stakeholders and customers is a key skill for both the
Product Owner and the Development Team. Scrum changes the nature of the
interactions, encouraging more frequent collaboration and more open dialogue.
The practitioner will understand the implication moving to an Agile approach will
have to their stakeholders and customers and also become familiar with practices
that will help them work and collaborate in a more agile way.

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