The Sprint Retrospective is a key ceremony for ‘Inspect and Adapt’ to aid Continuous Improvement.

Many organisations have only the Development Team, facilitated by the Scrum Master, to reflect on their past process performance and make PLANS to improve it.

However, The Product OWNER (PO) is also a member of the Scrum Team and there are advantages to having the PO included in the participants of the Retrospective:

• Strengthen the relationship with the Development Team and improve collaboration with them:

• Enough TIME with the development team?
• Available to answer questions or provide feedback quickly enough? 
• Right level of feedback and guidance in the right way?
• Is COMMUNICATION between the Development team and the PO open, honest, and TRUSTFUL?

• Understand why the Development Team requires some time in the next Sprint to carry out improvements such as refactoring or investigating a new test tool
• Improve the PO’s own work:
  • Understanding why some PBI were not completed
    • Too big
    • Insufficient Acceptance Criteria
• Does the team know how the users employ the product?
• Are the team members happy with:
  • Their involvement in analysing user feedback and data
  • Changing the product backlog
  • Getting stories ready for the sprint? 
• Do you get enough support from the team to “refine” the backlog?
• Are the team members aware of the big picture:
  • The overall vision
  • The product strategy
  • The product roadmap? 
• Does the PO get enough of the Development Team members’ time to help with product planning and product road mapping?

If the Development Team have ‘a problem’ with the PO, it is tempting for them not to invite the PO to Retrospectives but this ‘problem’ is an issue and as a Scrum Master it is part of your responsibility to help resolve issues; the Retrospective is the best mechanism to discuss and resolve problems between the Development Team and the PO.