The Product Goal is the Product Backlog's commitment. It describes a future state
of the product, and the rest of the backlog exists to reach it. That relationship
runs one way. The goal comes first and the backlog emerges to serve it, not the
other way round.
One at a time
This is the part the exam presses on. A Scrum Team holds one Product Goal at a
time, and must fulfil or abandon it before taking up another. The reasoning is
practical rather than dogmatic. A team steering toward three destinations is
choosing between them implicitly every day, at the level of individual tickets,
where nobody can see the decision being made.
Where it sits relative to everything else
The Product Goal is the long-range commitment; the Sprint Goal is the single
objective for one Sprint, and it should move the team measurably toward the
Product Goal. If a Sprint Goal cannot be connected to the Product Goal, either the
Sprint has drifted or the Product Goal is stale.
Common misconceptions
“A Scrum Team can pursue several Product Goals at once.”
A Scrum Team has one Product Goal at a time. It must fulfil or abandon one before taking up the next. Several simultaneous goals is the most common wrong answer in this area.
“The Product Goal is the same thing as a roadmap.”
A roadmap is a forecast of many things over time. The Product Goal is a single target the backlog emerges from. One is a plan; the other is the commitment the plan serves.
4 questions test this concept
Which of these reads as a Product Goal rather than as something else?
ADeliver the twelve items in the Q3 release by 30 September.
BEnable self-service account closure so that support handles no account closure contacts.