Project management in the Scrum world sees a lot of roles being deployed among competent individuals. Finding the right fit based on skillset is necessary to ensure the smooth workflow of a project and ensuring there are better deliverability and meeting of deadlines. Two roles that are constantly discussed are that of a Product Owner and a Project Manager. The CSPO certification gives a Product Owner validation to go ahead and own features of a product while a project manager oversees the overall implementation. Get started with the CSPO Training in New York to understand it better.
We’ve broken down the roles of these two designations to make it easier –
Who is the Product Owner
The Scrum Product Owner is the person responsible for maximizing value on a product which the Development Team has worked on. There are different Scrum individuals, organizations, and teams who are involved in this process, and they have the main role in managing the Product backlog. This entails –
- Expressing the different items in the Product Backlog in a clear manner
- Optimizing Development team performance and the value of their work
- Ordering the different items in a Product Backlog to achieve missions and goals
- Ensuring Development Teams have a good level of understanding and transparency of the Product Backlog.
At the end of the day, the Product Owner is held responsible for the tasks mentioned. There are different types of users and customers, so finding the right product owner who has a good understanding of the business domain is crucial. The responsibilities and roles of Product Owners include prioritizing the various product, delivering a vision of the product, defining the requirements of the application, adjusting the features and prioritizing the various needs, keeping users informed of the status and getting feedback, ensuring there is a clear product backlog and announcing releases after defining them. These are a fair indicator of the various responsibilities of a Product Owner and how he/she manages a team of individuals. With such high stakes, becoming a certified professional becomes quite a necessity and courses like Certified Scrum Product Owner course in Washington and other major cities provide you with the perfect opportunity for the same.
Who is the Project Manager?
The Project Manager leads a project from the beginning till the end, and this includes the planning, execution as well as delivery of projects on time, within a schedule and budget. He/she are also involved in managing the resources and people by working with a team and ensuring the desired value of the product is being completed on time and delivered. A project manager must have an array of skills, including conflict resolution, the ability to ask questions, unstated understanding assumptions, and great management skills. There is a set of roles a project manager must fulfill during the cycle of a project, and they are applicable to project managers in general:
- Defining the scope and planning
Good planning is the backbone of the project manager’s job. Meeting deadlines is absolutely crucial, and improper planning can lead to the failure and even termination of certain projects. The project manager must define the scope properly by determining the available resources and estimating financial and time commitments.
- Time Management
Projects can be deemed successful or not depending on whether they have been delivered on time. It is important that project managers set realistic deadlines and ensures the teams follow them properly. There are other things to be considered as well –
- Sequencing activities
- Defining activities
- Estimating the total duration of activities
- Developing a smart schedule
- Maintaining the schedule
- Ensuring customer satisfaction
The stakeholders have certain expectations, and the project manager must meet them with the delivery quality. Constant monitoring and communication are vital to take regular feedback and report the progress and performance of the team. They must also be able to estimate the costs and budgets and monitor them effectively, so they don’t go overboard.
- Risk Management
Any problems and risks that arise need to be worked on and resolved as soon as possible. These potential risks can occur occasionally and derail project timelines and deliverables. The Project Manager must take the initiative to curb and reduce these risks, along with a plan of action that helps them tackle the same.
- Manage the reports and documents
The documentation and final reports are two of the most important tasks for a manager, and the requirements need to be fulfilled, along with the project history. Once this is done, they need to analyze the same and carry their learnings onto the next project and see how they can improve in the future.
Thus, the Product Owner and Project Manager have certain common goals and roles, but from an overall perspective, their involvement is completely different. They work together as teams and ensure all the timelines and deliverables are met, and the company achieves its yearly goals.
