Study Guide for the Professional Scrum Product Owner
From the Home of Scrum
As described in the Scrum Guide, a Scrum Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Development Team. How this is done may vary widely across organizations, Scrum Teams, and individuals.
The learning path is organized by a set of Professional Scrum Competencies which each contain a number of focus areas. Resources are laid out in a prescribed order, however it is your journey, so follow in the best way that helps you learn.
Assessment Details
Fee: $200 USD per attempt
Passing score: 85%
Time limit: 60 minutes
Number of Questions: 80
Format: Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer and True/False
Difficulty: Intermediate
Language: English only
Other Research: PSPO Subject Areas
Required course: None
Recommended course: Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) Course with Certification
Practice assessments: Scrum Open and Product Owner Open
Passwords have no expiration date, but if you take the assessment within 14 days of the class and are not successful, you will receive a second attempt included.
Table of Contents
Professional Scrum Product Owner I Assessment
The assessment is difficult; preparation is required to achieve a passing score. Reading the Scrum Guide and taking the Open Assessments alone isn’t typically enough preparation and we recommend reviewing the content below:
- The assessment covers topics from multiple Focus Areas defined by the Professional Scrum Competencies.
- Many questions ask you to think about or interpret the meaning from the Scrum Guide and how you would apply Scrum within a Scrum Team.
- The PSPO I Suggested Reading lists the Focus Areas from which questions may be selected during the assessment.
- The Scrum Master Learning Path contains many additional resources to help you prepare to take the PSPO I Assessment.
PSPO 1 Assessment Token
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- Within 1-3 business days, you will receive your PSM-1 assessment token from support@scrum.org.
- If you did not receive the mail and cannot find it in your spam folder please e-mail me and cc support@scrum.org .
- Please read the e-mail carefully and note down the cut-off time for your risk-free attempt.
- Please complete your first attempt at the assessment before this cut-off time. You have nothing to lose! Even if you fail, you will get another free attempt that never expires.
- PSPO-1 ASSESSMENT PREP:
- AGILE FUNDAMENTALS:
- SCRUM FUNDAMENTALS:
- Read the Scrum Guide thoroughly and understand…
- What is required (mandatory, non-negotiable element – ex. 3 roles, 5 events, 3 artefacts) for Scrum
- What is suggested for Scrum (ex. Backlog refinement)
- What is the mindset for Scrum ( Empirical Principles and Scrum Values )
- There are many complementary practices like User Stories that are commonly used in the industry, but are intentionally neither mentioned in the Scrum Guide nor are they mandated for Scrum
- Read The Scrum Glossary to get an overview of Scrum-related terms
- Read the Professional Scrum Developer glossary to get an overview of terms specific to Agile Software Delivery with Scrum
- Read this page on What is Scrum & watch the video on Scrum Values
- Read the book Agile Project Management with Scrum By Ken Schwaber
- Read the blog – 80 Shades Of Grey – Top 10 Tips To Navigate The Ambiguities Of Scrum & Prepare For The Scrum.Org Psm-1 Assessment
- Read the Scrum Guide thoroughly and understand…
Take the free practice Scrum Open Assessment repeatedly until you score 100% consistently
Blogs and Articles
Some additional content on Product Owner:
- Blog Post: Hiring a Professional Product Owner
- Blog Post: Sprint Goal is an Immediate Tactical Goal
- Blog Post: What’s the best way to work around multiple PO?
- Blog Post: There is no place like production
- Blog Post: In Nexus with 5 Scrum teams, how can the Product Owner attend all Sprint Planning events?
- Blog Post: Does your organisation have both Project Mangers as well as Product Owners?
Scrum Values (Download the Poster)
Scrum Roles
- Roles in Scrum
- The 8 stances of a Scrum Master
- A day in the life of a Scrum Master
- Evolution of the Product Owner
- Evolution of the Scrum Master
- Evolution of the Development Team
Scrum Events:
- 5 Powerful things about the Sprint
- Getting to Done: Creating good Sprint Goals
- Scrum Myth: The Scrum Master must be present during the Daily Scrum
- Sprint Review: Much more than a demo
- 11 ideas to spice up your Sprint Retrospective
Articles, Videos, and Podcasts
- 17 Common Scrum Myths
- How do you define a Product
- The Customer, not the Organization defines what makes a product
Books
- Mastering Professional Scrum: A Practitioner s Guide to Overcoming Challenges and Maximizing the Benefits of Agility by Stephanie Ockerman and Simon Reindl
- Scrum: A Pocket Guide by Gunther Verheyen
- Software in 30 days by Ken Schwaber
- Scrum Insights for Practitioners: The Scrum Guide Companion by Hiren Doshi
Practice
- Take the Product Owner Open Assessment until you are comfortable with the content. The Product Owner Open assessment is a learning tool, and thus feedback is provided during the test.
- You may also find it valuable to take the Scrum Open Assessment as a way to gain additional perspective on the other roles of a Scrum Team.
- Apply Scrum in your workplace. As you do, stop to reflect on whether you’re taking advantage of all the opportunities that the Scrum framework offers, or if you’re using ScrumBut.
- Be conscious of your decisions as you adapt and evolve with projects complexity and team member’s old habits. Think about why Scrum is structured the way it is, and how the Scrum framework differs from traditional management practices.