Scrum with an absent Product Owner

What is scrum? Scrum is a set of principles/activities that allows a group to coordinate actions and deliverables so that something useful is delivered (has business value) when finished. It's also an agile process for delivering software.

Scrum to many is just a word that can conjure images either of complete anarchy or nirvana depending on your understanding of it. Scrum is successful when all involved coordinate based on roles on the team. You have your pigs and chickens as roles; you have your team member, scrum master and product owner roles as well. As team member on the team my role is to produce output that in it's entirety has business value. As a scrum master my role is to ensure the team meets daily, identify and remove impediments, and act as the liaison to the Product Owner. As the Product Owner I'm the one ultimately responsible for delivering business value to my stakeholders.

What happens to the team if the product owner role isn't filled or even worse has someone who only takes that responsibility semi seriously? For many teams they will overcome and in the short term be successful. Unfortunately in the long term they fail; mainly because they are focused on the sprint or next couple of sprints. There is no overall strategy or vision. A product owner who rarely shows up at daily standups or decides that attending the end of sprint review is optional for them is doing a dis-service to the team and ultimately to the company.

If you find yourself with an absent product owner I recommend taking action by talking to the product owner and letting them know the value that they add by being an active member of the team.