A Mapping Study on Product Owners in Industry: Identifying Future Research Directions

Product Owners in the Scrum framework - respectively the On-site Customer when applying eXtreme Programming - have an important role in the development process. The Scrum Guide states that this role is responsible for the requirements and maximizing the value of the product. However, the implementation of this role depends on the individual, the organization and the team and is perceived as difficult in industry. Various research approaches provide insights in the applied PO role in industry - yet, a conclusive bigger picture of the studies and reports on this issue is missing. To fill this gap, we conducted a systematic mapping study. Our findings structure the research area of Product Owners in industry in terms of research topics and applied research methods. In total, we identified 30 contributions addressing seven research topics and generated consolidated answers for each of them. While some of those topics provide congruent results, others point to gaps in current research: So is the PO role in large-scale projects clearly defined as a group effort, but questions regarding the leadership and management responsibilities of POs remain unanswered. Also, the impact of external circumstances on the PO role is a question that is worth to answer in future work.