Stakeholder

Definition of Stakeholder:

The term stakeholder refers to people outside the Scrum team who have an interest in the product developed by the team. Examples for stakeholders could be direct managers, subject matter experts, account managers, salespeople, and legal officers.

Use of the Stakeholder role:

Stakeholders do not hold an official role in Agile or Scrum. However, the customer is considered to be the most important stakeholder. The main goal of Agile and Scrum is to add value to each product or deliverable produced in an iteration or sprint. Product acceptance depends on whether the Product Owner, acting on behalf of the customer, is satisfied that the customer’s acceptance criteria has been met. Other Stakeholders may have varying roles.

Benefits of the Stakeholder role:

• ensure that customer’s needs and vision are accurately met.
• increase the customer’s trust in team’s ability to deliver a high-quality product.
• alert account managers of budget required for iterations.
• inform salespeople of products in the pipeline.
• become encouraged to be engaged with the process.