Organizational Anti-Patterns
What causes agile projects to fail relating to agile experience?
Lack of experience with agile methods
What was the PO anti-pattern demonstrated in the Seinfeld video?
The impatient Product Owner
What is an anti-pattern?
A commonly used practice that aims to solve a recurring problem but often results in negative consequences.
What are the 3 pillars in Agile Scrum?
Transparency, Inspection, Adoption
In this meeting, each team member communicates What they Did Yesterday, What they Plan for Today, If Any Impediments.
What is the Daily Scrum/Daily Standup meeting?
1. Place the blame on scrum whenever you can, even if it is technically unrelated.
2. If Scrum uncovers an obstacle in the organization, place the blame on Scrum
3. Challenge ANYTHING the Scrum Master tries to say or do.
4. Ignore the Scrum Master’s offers to provide education to you about Scrum.
5. Create an ego-centric incentive system.
6. Install multiple Product Owners in a Scrum Team
What is the result of not fully empowering a proxy PO when a full-time PO is unavailable?
Delayed decision making, conflicts in direction, and overall lack of trust within a team.
What kind of pressure causes agile projects to fail?
External pressures to follow traditional waterfall processes
What are the 5 Values of Scrum?
Courage, focus, commitment, respect, and openness.
In this meeting, the team discusses Team Shout Outs/Kudos, What Went Well, What Did Not Go Well, and Action Items to implement in the next Sprint.
What is the Sprint Retrospective?
What is the risk of placing the blame on scrum whenever you can, even if it is technically unrelated?
Not identifying and improving true product planning & delivery processes and issues.
What is the risk of the anti-pattern of developers working on issues that are not visible on the board?
Not delivering on the important, prioritized sprint goal. Sprint capacity reduced, unknowingly.
What is the risk of the "metrics and reporting" anti-pattern, demanding estimates and treating them as commitments?
Poor product quality.
Name the 3 core roles of an Agile Scrum team
Product Owner, Developers, Scrum Master (ATF)
In this meeting Product Backlog items are reviewed for clarity, definition of done, and sized.
What is the Product Backlog Refinement Meeting?
What is risk of directly requesting work from developers that switches focus away from the Sprint Goal?
Sprint Goal isn’t met. Product Roadmap delayed because sprint goals aren’t met.
What is the risk of Scrum Master not addressing the acceptance of "unrefined" Product Backlog issues into the Sprint Backlog?
Sprint goal delivery because there is not enough information for development
Name any 3 of the 7 anti-patterns Solution Owners may exhibit.
1. Insisting on an over-sized Product Backlog.
2. Insisting on a submissive Scrum Team who never challenges why we are doing the work.
3. Constantly switch Developers from one project to another.
4. Ignore the self-management of Scrum Teams; instead, micromanage them.
5. Enforce traditional/waterfall practices within the scrum framework; for example, insist on approving Increments.
6. Award contradicting individual incentives to Developers to cause internal competition within the Scrum team.
7. Put constant pressure on Developers, telling them they are too slow, and they don't understand the business, while keeping the Scrum Team isolated from the business.
Describe difference between traditional project management (waterfall) and agile delivery?
Waterfall produces a single product at the end of a period with little interaction with stakeholders, business, end-users. Agile delivers increment (MVP) frequently at the end of each sprint.
In this meeting, the Sprint Backlog is queued for the next active sprint, the Sprint Goal is defined, and the new sprint is kicked off.
What is the Sprint Planning meeting?
What is the risk of overloading the Scrum team with requests, then complaining to others that you do not get results on time?
Loss of trust from the team in your ability to lead. Team morale drops along with a productivity drop. Risk of project failure, as a result.
What is the risk of Scrum Master anti-pattern: Daily Scrum becomes a reporting session on specific items.
Not receiving progress towards Sprint Goal from each squad member daily.
What is the risk of insisting on oversized product backlog?
Waste is created in the form of Product Backlog items that are refined but will never be released as more valuable items are later identified.
Name at least 3 extended members with which agile core team members collaborate.
Solution Owner, Project Manager, Program Manager, Director, Architect, Infrastructure, Data Modelers (DBAs)
This meeting is only for the Agile Team and is not open to leadership.
What is the Agile Retrospective?