Antipattern: Manager is Customer/Owner

Here is one of the XP2006 workshop antipatterns the group worked on.

Poor solution:
Manager prioritizes stories, tells how to do them, developers don’t have a say (because of manager’s authority)

Forces:
Customer absent
Managers want to stay in control
Manager knows product and thinks he knows what users want
Organization doesn’t trust developers

Consequences:
Customer doesn’t get what he wants/needs
Team is disempowered/alienated
Creates dependency situation

Example:
Product owner manages the whole team. He discourages the team to come up with better solutions so that they depend on him.

Better solution:
Separate product owner from other roles on the product
Onsite customer
Train manager as coach (so that he has a role outside of owning product and can drop that role)

Exceptions:
Very small company
Temporary replacement if product owner on planned/unplanned absence

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