Question

On a hybrid product-development project, the sponsor has publicly asked the project manager to empower key business stakeholders to make day-to-day acceptance decisions on delivered features. However, whenever a feature is ready for acceptance, the stakeholders defer every decision back to the project manager, causing delays and a growing backlog of un-accepted increments. What should the project manager do to genuinely empower these stakeholders?

Accepted Answer

Clarify the decision boundaries and acceptance criteria with the stakeholders, then coach them to make decisions while making themselves available for support

Answer

Continue making the acceptance decisions personally to keep the backlog moving, since the stakeholders are clearly not ready to decide

Answer

Escalate to the sponsor that the stakeholders are unwilling to accept the authority they were given and request replacements

Answer

Document the delays in the risk register and let the accumulating backlog demonstrate the impact to the stakeholders