Scrum Management Anti-Patterns - A Vote of No Confidence

The focus on anti-patterns continues with this episode.  We have touched on some of these challenges in other examples.  However, these scrum management anti-patterns are special in that they often point to a lack of confidence in the process.  That can reduce morale and the team's dedication to the process.  It can rapidly devolve into a negative monkey see, monkey do situation.

Going Around the Scrum Master

There are several reasons why a team member is tasked with specific work.  However, these directives can reduce the team's ability to self-organize.  Micro-management of a Scrum team shows a lack of respect for the Agile process and can quickly lead to the team working for their boss.  This lack of teamwork reduces overall productivity and is devastating to a scrum team.  Allow the "coach" to do their job and the team to be the best they can be.

Everything is a Bug

Many teams adjust priorities and even sprint scope rules to address bugs.  This can include pausing a sprint or pulling resources temporarily.  In an Agile project, many things will arise that need to be addressed but are not a bug.  When we call every desired change a bug, we ignore the idea of changing requirements and adapting to those.  We also run the risk of labeling everything as urgent or critical.  That defeats the purpose of priorities and planning.

Disrupting the Sprint Flow

One of the productivity boosts that occurs from sprints derives from the team being able to focus.  Distractions are exactly that.  They pull us away from a task to some degree and reduce our ability to get the job done.  When we disrupt the sprint flow, we introduce a productivity reducer to the whole team.  That will always be a negative impact on the velocity.

Shifting Resources

We have mentioned in other anti-patterns that we want to keep sprints similar.  That provides us a path to more direct comparison from one to the next.  That is where our best trend data will come from.  However, this breaks that and becomes one of the worst of the scrum management anti-patterns.

This mistake arises when management moves resources around from sprint to sprint and team to team.  When your team members are different for each sprint, you will have a hard time building cohesion.  Teamwork can not come about instantly.  It requires the members to work together over time to build trust and comfort with each other.

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Challenge of The Week: Which of these do you see in your team?  How will you fix it?