Everything You Need to Know About the Top Scrum Anti-Patterns
Scrum is a project management framework, whose concepts and techniques are easy to understand. However, what is challenging is executing the Scrum framework on a day-to-day basis. Scrum involves changing certain habits that have been in existence for several years. Changing these habits cannot happen overnight.
SAFe® (Scaled Agile Framework) practitioners who have completed the Agile certification course and even those who have SAFe® Scrum Master certification have adequate knowledge about the various Scrum anti-patterns.
What are Scrum Anti-patterns?
Scrum anti-patterns are certain practices or influences that are frequently exhibited in the process of Agile thinking and working. The Scrum anti-patterns are bad and have a negative or no influence on the Scrum execution. If Scrum anti-patterns are not correctly identified, they may end up causing a lot of problems in the long run.
Here are some of the top Scrum anti-patterns that you and your team should be aware of.
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Scrum anti-patterns at the Sprint Planning meetings
Undefined product backlog
One of the biggest offenses that a product owner can commit is not maintaining a product backlog properly prior to the Sprint Planning meeting. An undefined product backlog will make it increasingly difficult to identify incoming tasks in the Sprint Meeting and result in a lot of wastage of time.
Missing key stakeholders
The presence of key stakeholders is essential during the Spring Planning meetings. If the key stakeholders are absent, it could lead to several problems such as:
- No clarity for the product owner
- Lack of commitment of team members to the tasks
- Development teams find it difficult to set aside time for bug fixes and ad-hoc tasks
Weak Definition of Done (DOD)
The DOD enables teams to precisely estimate how much effort would be required for completing a task. Having a weak DOD means there is no accurate measurement of how much effort every member has put into it.
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Anti-patterns during Sprint review
Lack of attendance
Both internal and external people fail to show up at the sprint review meetings. If there is a lack of attendance, the stakeholders may feel less interested in the presentation.
Unfinished business
The development team presents certain work items as completed. However, they don’t meet the DOD, resulting in a false sense of accomplishment.
Under preparedness or lack of preparation
Lack of preparation or under preparation during the Sprint Review meeting may disengage the stakeholders. This may result in a lack of participation from their end, next time.
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Anti-patterns during Daily Stand-up
Outside noise
Often, the discussions in the Daily Scrum meeting are taken over by external stakeholders, making the meeting pointless.
Discussing the work in-depth
A Daily Scrum meeting gets unnecessarily extended when the team members discuss work that is not aligned with the Daily Scrum meeting.
Existing problems
Team members find it difficult to resolve the existing issues and cannot go about their work smoothly.
Skipping the Daily Scrums
Infrequent Daily Scrum meetings will make it difficult for teams to create the right strategy for the day.
Lack of preparation
The lack of preparation from the team members can lead to a violation of the 15 minute time limit for the meeting.
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Anti-patterns at the Sprint Retrospective
Getting personal
Team members make personal remarks during the retro on others, which causes a lot of inconvenience and friction.
Rushing or skipping the retro
The team either rushes or skips the retro altogether. This is a visible sign of a lack of understanding of the importance of the Sprint Retrospective meeting.
No action plans taken
Despite coming up with action plans, no one in the team fails to follow the action plans.
Snitching
Members of the team share discussed points with external stakeholders, resulting in a breach of trust. Hence, people fail to speak honestly in retro.
Some of the other anti-patterns associated with Scrum Masters and Product Owners are:
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Anti-patterns of Scrum Master
- Performing multiple roles
- Avoiding uncomfortable situations and conflicts
- Providing too much freedom
- Lack of experience
- Using competition as motivation
How to deal and respond to all these anti-patterns of Scrum Master can be learned in detail with a SAFe® Scrum Master Certification from AgilityPAD. Just to differentiate below are the Anti-patterns of Product Owner.
- Anti-patterns of Product Owner
- Poor backlog management
- Inaccessible product owner
- Unreflective product owner
- Product owner who is selfish
- Lack of vision
- Product owner who is not accountable
There are many Scrum anti-patterns that you need to be aware of. If you are a Scrum Master who requires professional training in identifying various Scrum anti-patterns, you can go for the SAFe® Scrum Master Certification or Agile certification from AgilityPAD institute. For more information about the Agile certification courses, get in touch with AgilityPAD today.
