Has anyone else run into a product owner that sets unrealistic deadlines and changes the scope of user stories constantly based on “priority” literally every sprint? Keep in mind as you read this: I barely have experience (6 months) When things get brought up mid sprint that is outside of scope for my current story, I’ve asked for a story to be added mid sprint if I’m going to be doing some extra stuff that takes an insane amount of time and they say “oh no you don’t need a story for this, just do it as apart of your current story”. On top of that, the things I’m being asked to do, I’ve never done before and when I ask for requirements to be written out, instead I’m told verbally what I need to do but it makes zero fucking sense. When I asked them to repeat themselves/explain it to me in better terms after 4-5 times, they finally explain it in a way I can comprehend. This causes significant delays to my work if I can’t even understand what I need to be working on. The worst part is, sometimes they don’t even know what I need to be doing themselves! Our user stories aren’t even stories really because they have no true definition of done (at the behest of the product owners), don’t outline any tasks that need to be taken like who should I be meeting with? zero clue until I ask, no user personas at all so idk who the possible audiences are for my story, and no accurate points allocated to my stories. If I know a story is going to take the entire sprint bc it is really complex, it should be 8 points, not 3-4! Has anyone experienced something like this? How did you handle it?
POs will vary quite a lot, but at their best, they should also be playing the role of scrum master and protecting the team's focus/capacity while making sure that you're shipping a lot of value for the product/customer. Beyond that, grooming is a basic part of their job. This one sounds less than amazing. Talk to your manager about the lack of clarity on definition of done, and maybe ask what the PO should be doing so you can flag the gaps..
Your manager and the PO should be arguing this out, not you.
Your process is broken. Might need to look up a level from the PO to figure out why.
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Just be clear that changing requirements changes deadlines. Put it in writing through tickets or email. In a few months the product owner will "forget" about these changes and drive a bus over you.