According to the Scrum Guide, the daily scrum is a chance for the developers in the team to inspect and adapt. They inspect their progress towards the sprint goal and adapt the sprint backlog if needed. In the daily scrum, the product owner is an observer and listener, and not necessarily an active participant.
While there are no hard rules about whether the product owner should attend the daily scrum, there are several compelling reasons why they should attend:
- The product owner can get a sense of the challenges the team is facing. The purpose of the meeting is not to provide an update on progress, but rather to discuss progress, and adapt the sprint backlog if needed. Through this, the product owner can get a sense of any challenges the team is facing. This can help the product owner in preparation for future sprints.
- Impediments and blockers should be raised at the daily scrum. The product owner might be in a position to help remove or manage some of these impediments or blockers, helping to smooth the path for the development team.
- The development team may have questions related to the stories in the sprint backlog, or questions about priority if a product bug is reported. This reduces the time a developer waits for the answer to an important question.
From my experience, the closer to the sprint and the development team a product owner is, the better the opportunity to answer questions or address concerns before time is spent by the development team on work that perhaps needs to be adjusted later on. Product owners often have a very busy schedule, so attending the daily scrum reduces the time spent by the development team waiting for the product owner to become available to answer questions.
Another benefit is to promote a good working relationship between the product owner and the development team.
When Must the Product Owner Participate in the Daily Scrum?
The product owner should attend the daily scrum multiple times each sprint, and when requested by the rest of the team, if they have an important question, a blocker or impediment that the PO can help with, or when there is another update that could impact the product or the sprint goal.
What is the Role of the Product Owner During the Daily Scrum?
The role of the product owner in the daily scrum is to listen to the team, answer questions, and assist the team to remove impediments and blockers if needed.
