Mind the product owner: An action research project into agile release planning
Konsta Kantola, Jari Vanhanen, Jussi Tolvanen
Abstract
This thesis presents a canonical action research project with the goal of improving agile release planning in a real-world client organization. It is important for software development organizations to be able to plan work in a way that is efficient and supports development work. The research provides the answers to the following questions [1]What issues can exist in a software development organization’s agile release planning practices? [2]What are the perceived effects of introducing practices to counteract strain for Product Owners? Is there an improvement in agile release planning? The main findings of this thesis are that the Product Owner role can be strained, changing priorities can have ill effects on agile release planning, and that it can be difficult for participants to suggest improvements to agile release planning. The results suggest that having an active, collective and structured channel for continuous improvement for Product Owners can help drive improvements to agile release planning, and that having shared meetings and activities for Product Owners can promote team spirit between Product Owners.