HKSM

A working agreement that lays out how several Product Owners coordinate with the Chief (or Chief Product Owner): who owns which backlogs, how priorities are aligned, how decisions are made and escalated, the cadences for joint events, shared information flows, and rules for handling dependencies and conflicts across teams.

Key Points

• Clarifies decision rights, including who makes final prioritization calls and how issues escalate to the Chief.
• Defines shared cadences (refinement, planning, reviews), communication channels, and artifacts for cross-team alignment.
• Specifies backlog boundaries, integration points, and how dependencies and conflicts are identified and resolved.
• The Product Owners Collaboration Plan should define how multiple Product Owners collaborate with the Chief and Product Owner.

Example

A company running five Scrum teams appoints a Chief Product Owner. The Product Owners create a collaboration plan that states the Chief sets the overall product goal and resolves prioritization conflicts, each Product Owner manages a feature-area backlog, joint refinement occurs weekly, and cross-team dependencies are tracked in a shared board. The Product Owners Collaboration Plan should define how multiple Product Owners collaborate with the Chief and Product Owner.

PMP Example Question

In a scaled agile program with several Product Owners and a Chief, which element should be documented in the Product Owners Collaboration Plan?

1. The teams coding language standards
2. The Definition of Done technical acceptance checks
3. Decision rights and escalation paths between Product Owners and the Chief
4. Daily standup agendas for each team

Correct Answer: C — Decision rights and escalation paths

Explanation: The plan exists to define how multiple Product Owners coordinate with the Chief, including decision-making, prioritization, and escalation. Technical standards and team-level ceremonies are documented elsewhere.