Are Product Owners and Business Analysts Different? with Hal Hogue and Misi Eyetsemitan

Agile Coaches' Corner

This week, Dan Neumann is joined by two colleagues, Hal Hogue and Misi Eyetsemitan.

In this episode, they explore a question that came up in a Coaches’ practice recently that was about the differences between a Product Owner and a Business Analyst. Are both the same? Do they have different business accountabilities? How do both enter the big picture?

Key Takeaways

● Product Owner and a Business Analyst are totally two different roles.

○ They vary by responsibility and by definition of functions; they are two entirely different roles.

○ Both roles can help in the accountabilities of Scrum.

○ Exploring the history, we traditionally had Business Analysts and Project Managers. The Scrum Framework does not have either of these titles. this

○ The Product Owner focuses on the vision and the profitability/marketability of the product (all about value).

○ The Scrum Master is all about the framework.

○ The Development Team has the accountability to develop the product and the process that will ensure that the product or task is addressed in an achievable way.

○ Business Analysts can help the Scrum Team by making sure that the backlog is representative of the vision of the product and the input of the users, stakeholders, and the Developers.

● Business Analysts are valuable when there is a scale in Agile.

○ When there is a robust product that has multiple Teams working on it, a BA is valuable.

● Is the need product- or experience-driven?

○ The answer may depend on the organization and on how Teams are set up. If the organization already has the operational role of a BA embedded within the Scrum Team, you can’t ignore it, it is part of the structure of that Team.

● Exploring each Team member’s accountabilities and responsibilities is a great way to prevent problems and safely scale. The Herculean Doughnut is an effective practice to determine roles and their reaches.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Learn more about the Herculean Doughnut

Zombie Scrum Survival Guide, by Christiaan Verwijs

Find what Dan Harmon’s Story Circle is about.

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