Mandatory PO task approval

Myth: Developers can't do Refactoring or architectural redesign without getting PO permission first.

Variations:

• Technical tasks require PO permission.
• The team only works on items presented by PO.

Follow-up myths:

• The PO needs to understand the technology very well to properly prioritize the work

Category: General Scrum myths
Danger: High

The basis of the myth

Traditional project managers create a Work Breakdown Structure, laying out the details of the work to be done by the developers in detail. Everything on the WBS must be done by the developers, and everything outside the WBS is "not in budget", and therefore not done by the developers. The misunderstanding that a PO behaves like a Project Manager leads to the idea that the PO needs to approve all the work.

Why is it a myth?

The Scrum guide states that the PO is responsible for "Optimizing the value of the work the Development Team performs" and "Ensuring that the Product Backlog is visible, transparent, and clear to all, and shows what the Scrum Team will work on next". The intention behind this: The PO has to take care that the investment into development is money well spent. When the team has to do certain work, it has to be done. In that case, the PO's approval is typically granted by default, because failure to do necessary work impacts the value of the product detrimentally.


Assumption #1: The PO personally manages the work
Some Product Owners feel the need to be in full control over everything the developers are doing. This is a very time consuming pastime without any real value to the product or towards customers. As per the Scrum Guide, the PO doesn't even need to do any of the backlog work - they can entrust all of this to the developers: It just needs to be clear that the PO has the responsibility that proper backlog management happens.

Assumption #2: The PO must approve technical tasks

While in general, every technical task has a value and cost associated, this is usually very difficult to express. What is the cost of not including this-or-that framework, what is the customer value of extracting a microservice? When the team decides that a certain activity is mandatory in the best interests of the product, it needs to be done. Refactoring is no different from testing: you won't ask the PO to approve testing, would you?

Consequences

Task focus

The PO focusing on technical tasks is looking more at the work done by the team than at outcome. This may blind them towards real customer expectation. A good PO should be able to completely ignore the "How" in the work and focus fully on the "What" in order to create a satisfying product.

Owning the work, not the product

The PO spending precious time to understand and approve every single technical task loses the same amount of time pondering the strategy of the product and exploring customer demand. Instead of owning the product, they become owners of a to-do list.

Micromanagement

As the PO involves with every technial decision around the product, they strip autonomy from the developers. This will form a dependency relationship where the PO becomes a key decision maker even for questions outside their domain of expertise. From micromanagement will come a culture of finger-pointing, blaming and distrust. 

Unsustainable development

When the PO gets a say in whether technical improvements are priority now or later, a business-savvy PO will often prefer another marketable feature over better technology. While this may be a good decision on some occasions, driving the product completely from a feature marketing perspective will result in fatal amounts of technical debt.

Remedies

When anyone feels that the PO should approve tasks, you should question the "Why". Potential reasons might include:

• The team is not sure of the current priorities and market situation. In this case, the PO can support the team by providing deeper insight.
• The PO does not believe that technical changes are necessary. In this case, the team might want to examine their own stance on "gold-plating".