What you own, influence, and observe
Agile decisions involve PMs, Scrum Masters, Developers, and stakeholders. These are the accountability lines for PMs. Own means you make the call. Influence means your input shapes it. Observe means you need visibility but it is not your decision.
Own
You make the decision
β’Defining the Sprint Goal for every sprint before Sprint Planning
β’Writing User Stories in the format: As a [persona], I want [goal], so that [benefit]
β’Ordering the Product Backlog using explicit prioritisation criteria
β’Backlog Refinement, not "Grooming": Sizing, detailing, and ordering items with the team
β’Defining Acceptance Criteria for each user story before it enters a sprint
β’Running the Sprint Review: Demo to stakeholders, collect feedback, update backlog
β’Release Planning: Sequencing features across sprints toward a release milestone
Influence
Your input shapes the decision
β’
Sprint length and ceremony structure with the Scrum Master
β’
Definition of Done: Criteria must reflect PM quality expectations alongside engineering standards
β’
Technical debt prioritisation: Negotiating debt paydown against feature work in sprint planning
β’
Velocity targets and delivery forecasts for roadmap planning
β’
Cross-team coordination and dependency resolution in multi-squad setups
β’
WIP limits and board design in Kanban setups
Observe
Not your call, but you need visibility
β’
How the Scrum Master facilitates retrospectives and resolves team dynamics
β’
Technical architecture and implementation decisions (what the Developers build)
β’
Engineering effort breakdowns within individual stories
β’
Infrastructure, DevOps, and CI/CD pipeline decisions
β’
Individual Developer performance: This belongs to the Scrum Master and Engineering Manager