Product Owner: “Please code this feature”.
Developer: “I can’t code this, until I receive a better spec”.
PO: “Just go ahead, I want your input to this as well”
Dev: “Alright”
— Developer codes it like he believes is the best, and show it to the Product Owner —
PO: “Why wasn’t _this_ included?”
Dev: “It wasn’t a part of the spec”
PO: “Well, I think it is kind of obvious, and I wanted your input as well”
I often hear from ScrumMasters and Agile Coaches stating, that you cannot have a succesful Scrum implementation without a Product Owner. The importance of the Product Owner can not be discussed, but there are “everyday situations” out there where a Product Owner for some reason is not available, as much as desired, and for sure won’t be for period of time. Telling the Product Owner to be more available won’t help anything, and calling off the desire of becoming more agile, doesn’t seem to be the solution as well.
Agile Reflections 