The product backlog? The engineers don't control the product backlog. This strategy falls flat when the PM committed to a stakeholder that they'd get a feature

The product backlog? The engineers don't control the product backlog. This strategy falls flat when the PM committed to a stakeholder that they'd get a feature done without defining it well or resolving dependencies, so now we have to sit for 15 minutes hammering it out. Note that I'm not totally disagreeing, but textbook scrum and what-happens-when-people-spend-a-lot-of-money-to-develop-something scrum often diverge greatly. The ultimate business purpose of scrum is to manage expectations. What's going to be done, when's it going to be done, if something's stuck who is responsible, etc. If the PM starts making wild promises and setting crazy expectations -- which PMs are wont to do -- all the methodology in the world isn't going to save you.