Germinal writings from Schwaber & Beedle (2002) stated the Product Owner is responsible for prioritizing work in the backlog.  Customer demands are prioritized by the PO but architectural and technical demands are best defined and prioritized by the architects and the software development teams. The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) defined business and architecture epics to ensure a complete picture of the work to be done and the need for balance.

The PO job is difficult.  Satisfying customers wants and market demands require special skills to carefully integrate with multiple groups in the organization to deliver value.

The PO can tell the best customer story when they are able to develop partnerships with a cross-functional team that produces and supports the product for market consumption.

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