Tasks - Do you know that every PBI should have an owner?

When you are building complicated software and working with customers it is always nice for them to have some idea on who to speak to about a particular PBI during a Sprint. In order to achieve this one of the Team takes responsibility for “looking after” a PBI.

They will collect all of the "Done emails and make sure that everyone follows the Done criteria identified by the team as well as answering any Product Owner queries.

PBI Owner Reposibilities

The role of the PBI Owner is like a mini project manager. The PBI Owner resolves any road blocks, performs the “Test Please” and makes sure there is a good presentation at the Review Meeting. In addition, having a PBI Owner makes it easy for Product Owners and others to talk to the right person when they need to.

There are five main things that the PBI Owner is responsible for:

• Manage / Own the story and its sub tasks
• Make sure a “Test Please” is conducted (or that their story is included in one)
• Make every effort to show the story to the Product Owner before the Sprint Review (aka a corridor conversation)
• Prepare for the Sprint Review. Make sure he ready for the review. Have a scribe, have a demo plan/script and get the story accepted quickly
• Present the completed PBI at the Sprint Review

During a Sprint it is useful for:

• The Product Owner to know who to speak to regarding a PBI
• The Team to know who will be presenting the PBI at the Sprint Review

• The Development team is self-organizing
• Accountability belongs to the development team as a whole

❌ Figure: Bad example - The Product Owner is not sure who to speak to

✅ Figure: Good example - The Product Owner can now see who he should speak to and developers know where to send done emails

✅ Figure: Assignees in GitHub