HKSM

A structured technique for scanning internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats around a product or project. In SBOK-based Scrum, it helps the Product Owner and stakeholders shape the product vision, prioritize the backlog, and identify risks and responses.

Key Points

• Tool and technique used in SBOK during Create Project Vision, Develop Epics, Identify Risks, and Release Planning.
• Examines internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats to guide product strategy.
• Typically conducted as a timeboxed, facilitated workshop led by the Scrum Master with the Product Owner, team, and key stakeholders.
• Findings are converted into actionable items such as epics, user stories, spikes, experiments, and risk responses.
• Supports value-focused prioritization and early mitigation of high-impact threats.
• Revisited at release boundaries or when the market or organizational context changes.

Purpose of Analysis

SWOT Analysis provides a shared view of the product landscape so the Scrum Team can make informed, value-driven decisions. It aligns stakeholders on what advantages to leverage, which gaps to fix, where to grow, and which risks require mitigation.

In Scrum, it guides the Product Owner in refining the product vision, shaping epics, and ordering the Product Backlog. It also seeds the risk register with threats and risk responses that influence release and sprint planning.

Method Steps

• Set the context: confirm the product vision, scope boundaries, current objectives, and timebox for the session.
• Identify strengths (internal): capabilities, assets, skills, brand, technology, or processes that create advantage.
• Identify weaknesses (internal): capability gaps, technical debt, constraints, or process issues that could hinder delivery.
• Identify opportunities (external): unmet customer needs, market shifts, new tech, partnerships, or regulatory openings.
• Identify threats (external): competitors, disruptive substitutes, regulatory risks, supply or vendor risks, or economic factors.
• Cluster and prioritize: de-duplicate items, group themes, and rank by impact and urgency using simple scoring.
• Translate into actions: create or update epics, user stories, spikes, experiments, and risk responses with owners.
• Record decisions: capture assumptions, constraints, success measures, and follow-ups; agree on review cadence.

Inputs Needed

• Draft Product Vision Statement and high-level business goals.
• Stakeholder inputs, customer feedback, personas, and usage analytics.
• Market research, competitor insights, and regulatory context.
• Current Product Backlog, known technical debt, architecture notes, and team capabilities.
• Assumptions and constraints, including budget, timeline, and risk appetite.

Outputs Produced

• Documented and prioritized SWOT matrix with clear themes.
• Updated Product Vision and release goals reflecting strategic choices.
• New or refined epics, user stories, spikes, and enablers added to the Product Backlog with initial ordering.
• Risk register entries with proposed responses, owners, and review dates.
• Updated assumptions and constraints, plus decisions and next steps for validation or discovery.

Interpretation Tips

• Keep the boundary clear: strengths and weaknesses are internal; opportunities and threats are external.
• Link every insight to value and measurable outcomes; avoid vague language.
• Quantify impact where possible using simple scoring or ranges to support prioritization.
• Convert insights into actionable backlog items with clear owners and short feedback loops.
• Validate assumptions via experiments or spikes before making large commitments.
• Revisit the SWOT at each release or when significant market or product changes occur.

Example

A Scrum Team planning its first release conducts a 90-minute SWOT workshop. They note strong CI/CD capability (strength), gaps in analytics (weakness), a new partner API (opportunity), and an upcoming regulation (threat).

• Actions include an integration epic for the partner API, a spike to select analytics tooling, and a risk response plan for the regulation.
• The Product Owner updates the Product Vision and orders the backlog to capitalize on the opportunity while mitigating the regulatory risk early.

Pitfalls

• Creating a long list without converting items into backlog actions and risk responses.
• Confusing internal weaknesses with external threats, leading to poor decisions.
• Allowing bias or loud voices to dominate instead of using data and cross-functional input.
• Overanalyzing and delaying delivery instead of timeboxing and testing assumptions.
• Treating SWOT as a one-time exercise and not revisiting it as conditions change.

PMP/SCRUM Example Question

The Product Owner wants to refine the product vision and prepare a release plan for a new product. What is the best next step to ensure strategic factors are translated into actionable backlog items?

1. Ask the Developers to estimate all Product Backlog items before any further analysis.
2. Create a detailed Gantt chart and WBS to lock the scope baseline.
3. Facilitate a SWOT Analysis workshop with stakeholders and the Scrum Team, then convert top items into epics, spikes, and risk responses.
4. Develop a RACI matrix to assign detailed responsibilities to each stakeholder.

Correct Answer: C — Facilitate a SWOT Analysis workshop with stakeholders and the Scrum Team, then convert top items into epics, spikes, and risk responses.

Explanation: SWOT is an SBOK-aligned tool for shaping vision and backlog by analyzing internal and external factors. It precedes detailed estimation or traditional planning artifacts not emphasized in Scrum.