Stakeholders & Customers
Stakeholders and customers questions test engagement, feedback loops, and the Product Owner's role as value interface. The exam expects collaboration, not stakeholder management as gatekeeping.
Core rules
- Identify customers and stakeholders and understand their needs and constraints.
- The Product Owner engages them to order the backlog and clarify value.
- The Sprint Review is a key feedback event; invite the right people and inspect the Increment.
- Developers may interact directly with users when useful; the Product Owner remains accountable for value.
- Balance competing demands through transparency and explicit trade-offs.
- Engagement is continuous, not a one-time requirements phase.
Worked example
A customer asks for a feature that conflicts with the Product Goal. The Product Owner should not simply say yes or no. They should explore the underlying need, compare it with current evidence, and make the trade-off visible in the backlog. Reasoning: engagement seeks value and learning, not automatic compliance.
Traps
Treating stakeholders as spectators; saying yes to every request; using the Product Owner as a firewall; inviting only managers to the Sprint Review; ignoring customer feedback after release.