User Group Meetings
Sessions where key business stakeholders, especially actual users and customers, meet with the Scrum team to share direct feedback on needs and expectations. Insights from these discussions shape acceptance criteria and inform the creation and refinement of epics.
Key Points
- Participants include users, customers, and other business stakeholders relevant to the product.
- Provide the Scrum team with direct input on user needs, priorities, and usability expectations.
- Outputs commonly include well-defined acceptance criteria and epic-level insights for backlog planning.
- Held early and periodically (e.g., discovery, backlog refinement, post-sprint reviews) and often facilitated by the Product Owner.
Example
A SaaS team hosts a monthly user group meeting with 12 customer representatives to review a prototype analytics dashboard. Feedback on must-have filters and performance expectations is captured and translated into acceptance criteria and an epic for Advanced Reporting, which is then prioritized in the product backlog.
PMP Example Question
What is the primary purpose of User Group Meetings in an agile project?
- To gather direct input from users to shape acceptance criteria and inform epics
- To negotiate vendor contracts and service-level agreements
- To finalize the system architecture before development begins
- To perform root cause analysis on production defects
Correct Answer: A — Gather direct user input for acceptance criteria and epics
Explanation: User Group Meetings focus on collecting first-hand feedback from users and customers, which guides acceptance criteria and epic refinement, supporting effective backlog development.
