TL; DR: System-Level Scrum Stakeholder Anti-Patterns Learn how outdated organizational structures manifest themselves in system-level Scrum stakeholder anti-patterns that easily impede any agile transformation to a product-led organization. We cover the perils of a lack of transparency, limited to non-existing…
TL; DR: Dysfunction Mapping w/ Michael Lloyd In this fascinating talk, Michael introduced the concept of dysfunction mapping, a tool developed over years of trial and error aimed at creating a repeatable way to find, theme, and ultimately solve organizational…
TL; DR: How To Spot Successful Scrum Masters In this article, I unravel the secrets of what makes a Scrum Master not just good but amazingly outstanding. From regularly achieving Sprint Goals, delivering value to customers, and building stakeholder rapport…
TL, DR: The Scrum Trap Scrum is a purposefully incomplete framework. Consequently, it needs to be augmented with tools and practices to apply its theoretical foundation to an organization’s business reality: what problems shall be solved for whom in which…
TL; DR: Escaping the Feature Factory The feature factory fate is not inevitable; there is hope to avoid becoming a mere cog in the machinery. Learn how! In many large organizations, Scrum teams fall into the ‘feature factory’ trap, focusing…
TL; DR: The Costs of an Oversized Product Backlog Some Product Owners believe that a comprehensive Product Backlog is the best way to accomplish the Product Goal and be fully transparent simultaneously—never let a possibly valuable idea slip away. However,…
TL; DR: Jira Anti-Patterns If you ask people to come up with popular attributes for “Agile” or “agility,” Scrum and Jira will likely be among the top ten featured. Moreover, in any discussion about the topic, someone will mention that…
TL; DR: The Three Daily Scrum Questions Won’t Die The Daily Scrum serves a single purpose: inspecting the progress toward the Sprint Goal by reflecting on yesterday’s learning. Then, if the need should arise, the Developers adapt their plan to…
TL; DR: Prisoners of Retrospectives There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Given that Scrum is a framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone. What if, for example, not all of your Scrum…
TL; DR: How to Sabotage A Product Owner — 53 Anti-Patterns from the Trenches to Avoid One of my favorite exercises from my Professional Scrum Product Owner classes is how to best sabotage a Product Owner as a member of the…
