When the Scrum Product Owner has to say 'No'

One of the key roles in Scrum is that of the Product Owner (PO) who manages the product backlog and helps decides on the product functionality. This is a challenging role where successful execution of responsibilities is pivotal to the project success or failure.

It's easier for people to say 'yes' than 'no' for the now because it mitigates the prospect of short term conflict. However, saying 'no' to the team, to the client or the Scrum Master, is one of the PO's most important tasks.

This list is based on a cool blog I read by Juan Banda at Agile Alliance. 

Related articles:

9 Essential Responsibilities of the Product Owner
How to Implement Scrum in 10 Easy Steps
5 Scrum Transition Anti-Patterns

Situations where the PO might need to say 'NO':

1. When the team wants to force the client to use a technology, platform, architecture or design that it believes to be 'technically suitable' but has no value to the client - I know what's best for you syndrome

2. When the client wants something that is clearly unfeasible with the given schedule and resources - the dreamer syndrome 

3. When the Scrum Master representing the team wants to change the scope for the project - two captains on one boat syndrome

4. When the team decided for themselves what should be excluded from the project - tech decision without involving the business syndrome

5. When developers want to work on an overkill solution for a problem - super engineer syndrome 

6. When the team wants to investigate during several Sprints without guaranteeing practical results - researcher syndrome

7. When the team and Scrum Master want to skip demos - ostrich syndrome

8. When the team want to exclude the PO from all meetings because they believe they already understand the product well enough - come back when I'm ready syndrome

9. When the client wants to communicate directly with the team by-passing the PO - serve yourself syndrome

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9 Essential Responsibilities of the Product Owner
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