Scrum Framework: PSPO 1 Study Guide

by:

syd

www.linkedin.com/in/sydearly

PSPO I Study Guide

KVA to KPI Mapping

Overview

The Key Value Areas (KVAs) of Evidence-Based Management can be assessed through measurable indicators. This table links each KVA to representative KPIs that can be gathered, inspected, and adapted over time.

Mapping

Key Value Area (KVA)	Purpose	Common KPIs
Current Value (CV)	Measures the value currently delivered to customers, users, and the organization.	Customer satisfaction, NPS, retention rate, revenue per user, product usage frequency.
Unrealized Value (UV)	Estimates potential future value if unmet needs were addressed.	Market share gap, opportunity score, customer requests backlog, feature desirability.
Ability to Innovate (A2I)	Reflects how easily the organization can deliver new capabilities.	Defect escape rate, deployment frequency, technical debt ratio, innovation rate.
Time to Market (T2M)	Evaluates how quickly ideas and value reach customers.	Cycle time, lead time, release frequency, time-to-learn, customer validation speed.

Primary Output: Contextual metrics for continuous inspection and adaptation

Product Owner Overview

Who

Accountable Role: The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing product value. One Product Owner per product and one Product Backlog. Works closely with Developers and the Scrum Master.

Key Notes

Stewards value, not people management.
Owns Product Backlog content and order.
Ensures transparency of goals, progress, and value.

Primary Output: Clear product direction and value focus

Product Value and Empiricism

What

Value is the desired outcome for users and the organization. Empiricism guides decisions with transparency, inspection, and adaptation to improve value delivery.

Key Notes

Make value visible: outcomes over outputs.
Run small experiments. Measure. Adapt.
Align work with Product Goal and stakeholder needs.

Primary Output: Evidence-informed product decisions

Product Goal

What

The Product Goal describes the future state of the product and provides a long-term objective for the Scrum Team.

Key Notes

Each Product Backlog has one Product Goal.
PBIs should contribute to the Product Goal.
The Product Goal can evolve as new evidence emerges.

Primary Output: Shared product vision and direction

Stakeholders and Transparency

Who

Customers, users, internal sponsors, governance, operations, sales, marketing, and support teams.

What

Build trust through clear goals, frequent inspection, and visible progress. Use the Sprint Review to align on value delivered and what to do next.

Key Notes

Map stakeholders by interest, influence, and needs.
Publish a transparent Product Goal and roadmap.
Set expectations about uncertainty and learning.

Primary Output: Aligned expectations and informed decisions

Product Backlog Management

What

Order the Product Backlog to maximize value. Keep items clear enough for inspection and adaptation. Use refinement to align on value and readiness.

Key Notes

Order by value, risk, learning, and urgency.
Right-size PBIs so the team can forecast responsibly.
Do not micromanage tasks. Focus on outcomes and acceptance criteria.

Primary Output: Ordered, transparent Product Backlog

Release Strategy and Forecasting

What

Forecast responsibly using empirical data rather than deterministic promises. Release to learn and to deliver value when ready.

Key Notes

Use throughput, cycle time, or velocity as historical evidence, not guarantees.
Favor frequent, small releases to reduce risk and time to learning.
Update forecasts at least each Sprint with new evidence.

Primary Output: Evidence-based release expectations

Evidence-Based Management (EBM)

Purpose

EBM helps organizations measure, manage, and improve outcomes to increase business agility and value delivery.

Key Value Areas

Current Value (CV): Value delivered today to customers, users, and the organization.
Unrealized Value (UV): Potential value if unmet needs are served.
Ability to Innovate (A2I): Ease of delivering new capabilities.
Time to Market (T2M): Speed of delivering and validating value.

Harvesting KPIs

Collect quantitative and qualitative measures for each KVA.
Link measures to decisions, experiments, and Product Goal.
Review trends each Sprint and adapt goals and plans.

Primary Output: Transparent, value-centered performance insights

Evidence-Based Management: KVAs and Measures

* denotes an item that is in the EBM Guide

Current Value

Current Value (CV): Measures the value the product delivers today to customers, users, and the organization.

* Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS = % Promoters − % Detractors
- Promoters (9–10): Loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others.
- Passives (7–8): Satisfied but unenthusiastic customers vulnerable to competitive offerings.
- Detractors (0–6): Unhappy customers who may damage your brand through negative word of mouth.
* Revenue per Employee: Total revenue divided by employee count over the same period.
Product Cost Ratio: Total product and operating costs divided by product revenue.
* Employee Satisfaction: Aggregated scores from periodic engagement or sentiment surveys.
* Customer Satisfaction: Survey or feedback averages collected after key interactions or releases.
Customer Usage Index: Feature or session usage frequency compiled from analytics logs.

Unrealized Value

Unrealized Value (UV): Estimates potential future value if unmet needs or opportunities are addressed.

* Relative Market Share: Measures your current market share compared to that of your largest competitor.
Relative Market Share = (Your Market Share) ÷ (Market Share of Largest Competitor)
- A ratio above 1 means you lead the market.
- A ratio below 1 means competitors have a larger share.
* Market Share Gap: how much unrealized value remains between where you are and where you could be.
Market Share Gap = (Target or Competitor Market Share) − (Your Market Share)
Potential Market Share: Modeled share based on addressable market and competitive benchmarks.
* Customer Satisfaction Gap: Desired experience score minus current experience score from surveys.
Desired Customer Experience: Qualitative synthesis of what customers say they want to achieve, captured via interviews and studies.

Time to Market

Time to Market (T2M): Measures how quickly ideas and value reach customers and generate learning.

* Build and Integration Frequency: Count of integrated and tested builds per period from CI data.
* Release Frequency: Number of production releases per period from deployment records.
Release Stabilization Period: Time spent fixing issues between “ready to release” and actual release.
Mean Time to Repair: Average elapsed time from detection of a failure to restored service.
Customer Cycle Time: Time from start of work on a release to availability for customers.
* Lead Time: Time from idea or request to customer benefit recorded in analytics or support data.
Lead Time for Changes: Time from code commit to running in production captured by pipeline tooling.
Deployment Frequency: Count of successful production deployments per period.
Time to Restore Service: Duration from outage start to full recovery as logged by incident tools.
Time to Learn: Time from experiment kickoff to validated learning outcome.
Time to Remove Impediment: Average time from raising an impediment to closure.
Time to Pivot: Elapsed time from new market evidence to delivering a changed approach.

Ability to Innovate

Ability to Innovate (A2I): Quantifies how effectively the organization can deliver new capabilities.

Employee Engagement: Engagement survey indices aligned to organizational goals.
* Innovation Rate: Percentage of effort on new capabilities versus maintenance or fixes.
* Defect Trends: Change in defect counts or rates per period from tracking systems.
On-Product Index: Percentage of time teams spend directly on value-producing work.
Installed Version Index: Number of supported product versions maintained in the field.
* Technical Debt: Estimated rework effort documented in code quality tools or backlog.
Production Incident Count: Number of production incidents requiring developer action.
Active Product Branches: Count of maintained code branches in version control.
Time Spent Merging Code: Average effort to merge changes across branches measured by VCS data.
Time Spent Context-Switching: Measured loss of focus time from interruptions and parallel work.
Change Failure Rate: Percentage of releases causing degradation, hotfix, or rollback.

Primary Output: Example measures for each KVA to support inspection and adaptation

Value Metrics and Dashboards

Purpose

Track outcomes over outputs. Make value hypotheses, test them, and visualize results for inspection and adaptation.

Examples

Current Value: NPS, customer retention, revenue per user.
Unrealized Value: addressable segments, opportunity scores.
Ability to Innovate: defect escape rate, deployment lead time.
Time to Market: cycle time, release frequency, lead time to value.

Primary Output: Evidence to guide backlog order and roadmap

Product Economics

What

Use economic thinking to order work and manage risk. Invest incrementally based on value evidence and uncertainty reduction.

Key Notes

Apply ROI, cost of delay, risk exposure, and option value.
Stop or pivot when marginal value falls below cost or risk tolerance.

Marginal Value The additional value gained by doing one more unit of work — for example, developing one more feature or iteration. When the marginal value (the benefit of doing a little more) becomes smaller than the cost or risk, Scrum teams know it’s time to stop, pivot, or re-prioritize.
Cost The resources spent to achieve the next bit of value — including developer effort, opportunity cost, infrastructure, or maintenance burden.
Risk Tolerance The amount of uncertainty or potential loss an organization is willing to accept before it must make a change. High-risk-tolerant teams may continue exploring uncertain opportunities; low-risk-tolerant teams may pivot sooner once evidence shows value is doubtful.

Prefer experiments that reduce uncertainty quickly.

Primary Output: Value-based prioritization and funding choices

Collaboration and Communication

What

Build shared understanding with Developers and stakeholders. Facilitate clear goals, open feedback, and responsive planning.

Techniques

Roadmap workshops and Product Goal alignment sessions.
Sprint Reviews as collaborative planning, not demos only.
Stakeholder maps and communication cadences.

Primary Output: Shared decisions and faster learning

Professionalism and Ethics

What

The Product Owner is a steward of value. Practice transparency, respect constraints, and avoid conflicts of interest.

Key Notes

Make tradeoffs explicit and test assumptions openly.
Protect product integrity and user trust.
Promote learning and continuous improvement.

Primary Output: Trustworthy, value-centered product stewardship

Stakeholder Mapping

What

A Stakeholder Map helps Product Owners visualize who influences and benefits from the product. It supports transparency, alignment, and evidence-based decision-making by identifying whose needs drive value.

Why

Mapping stakeholders helps you:

Clarify who contributes input to the Product Backlog.
Understand who receives value and how that value differs.
Balance competing needs and priorities among groups.
Tailor communication based on influence, interest, and attitude.

How

Step 1: List all potential stakeholders — customers, users, managers, sponsors, regulators, vendors.
Step 2: Evaluate their Influence (power to affect the product) and Interest (how much they care about outcomes).
Step 3: Place them on a 2×2 grid to determine engagement strategy.
Step 4: Add two optional layers for richer insight:

Value Expectation: What kind of value they seek (financial, user experience, compliance, reputation).
Attitude: Their current stance — supportive, neutral, or resistant.

Step 5: Review and update the map regularly as relationships evolve.

Engagement Grid

High Influence
High Interest
Manage Closely

Involve in planning and major decisions.
Example: Executive sponsor, key product owner, strategic partner

High Influence
Low Interest
Keep Satisfied

Provide concise updates and ensure alignment.
Example: Finance, legal, compliance

Low Influence
High Interest
Keep Informed

Engage through feedback sessions and demos.
Example: Teachers, support staff, end users

Low Influence
Low Interest
Monitor

Minimal contact unless interest increases.
Example: Peripheral departments, external observers

Advanced Example

Stakeholder	Influence	Interest	Value Expectation	Attitude
Chief Product Officer	High	High	Strategic alignment, ROI	Supportive
Legal/Compliance	High	Low	Risk reduction, regulation compliance	Neutral
Teachers (Primary Users)	Low	High	Ease of use, reliability, results	Supportive
Students	Low	Medium	Engagement, intuitive interface	Neutral
IT Operations	Medium	Medium	System stability, scalability	Supportive

This example combines influence, interest, value expectation, and attitude to help guide communication, prioritization, and change management strategies.

Primary Output: Prioritized understanding of who influences value and how to engage them effectively.