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Blurred lines between Product titles [SteveMiami]

I never put too much emphasis on job titles, I want to do a good job, help anyone that needs it, make customers happy and hopefully get paid well in return. Until I joined the job seekers. My harmonious belief doesn't translate too well when applied to job hunting. Recruiters, Hiring Managers and Resume Screening Software all need a resume listing job history with standard job titles so we are logged into a database.
This reminds me of a Rock band that has jazz and funk tunes but they're a rock band but, but... where does the band get categorized? Think brick-and-mortar record store, remember those? Some groups weren't carried by record shops because they didn't fit into one genre.
Job competition is about getting seen. Keywords and Job Titles. My responsibilites over the last several years translate to a Business Product Manager Owner Analyst, in other words a mashup of many roles. When I describe my typical work week to an interviewer, they aren't exactly sure where to put the check mark. Product Management, Business Analysis, Subject Matter Expert, Product Owner.


Lets take a look at titles, and remember we're looking at the roles from an Agile point-of-view. An "Agile Business Analyst" working on a digital publishing product may have different tasks than a traditional business analyst working on mortgage rates.

Generalizations.
The BA captures client requirements and transforms them into User Stories with Acceptance Criteria, which a tech team uses for development work.

Product Managers look at the market from a bigger view and at multiple customers using the product. The PM is responsible for strategy, roadmap, and feature definition for a product or product line which may also include forecasting and profit and product success responsibilities.

The Subject Matter Expert can be a Business Analyst. As a proxy product owner the BA can accept feature implementations. BAs fill many roles depending on company, project and management decisions.

Agile Business Analysts work with a Product Owner to define acceptance criteria and identify large features to break into smaller stories.

Product Owners give user perspective; the BA brings system focus. The result in theory is a well written story that a developer can complete.

BAs also help quality assurance test solutions and products. An agile BA mentors the Product Owners on how to break down features into user stories.

The Product Owner is responsible for accepting stories and managing the backlog (noting that a BA can be a Product Owner proxy).

Accepting Stories: A Business Analyst can verify that a story meets the defined acceptance criteria but only a Product Owner can verify that the story is done,

And it's not uncommon for an Agile team to be a modified version of Agile. Now that some definition is applied, all this can be thrown out the window. Companies and responsibilities of product owner, product manager and business analyst vary leaving the job recruiters frustrated.

Steve is a Digital Products Analyst based in New York City. Most recently implementing Content Management Systems with customized features for entertainment publishing. He known for solving problems, optimizing product features and creating happy users. Steve is actively interviewing and would like to join an Agile team as a Business Analyst / Product Manager. You can learn more about Steve's skill set and background at http://linkedin.com/in/steveapple​

Source: SteveMiami a-product-manager.blogspot.com

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