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In software engineering, ORDER MATTERS.

Let me say it again four more times:

ORDER MATTERS.

ORDER MATTERS.

ORDER MATTERS.

ORDER MATTERS.

Doing a set of features in the _wrong_ order can increase the time to deliver by 300%.

Things like many-to-many relationships, data versioning, etc are easier to implement if they’re done earlier as opposed to done later, where they have to retrofit.

A non-technical PO having the authority to decide which features are done in which order is one of the biggest problems of scrum. Especially true in the first weeks/months of the project where critical infrastructure and architecture needs to be set up.

A PO can and often does undermine the developers’ ability by mandating them delivering the software in the least efficient way possible.

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Good call. I tend to focus on the issues related to Product Owners dictating _what_ to build, but just as much or more damage can be done by messing up the _order_ in which it gets built.

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