The Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide

Unlock Scrum success for beginners and experts alike with The Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide, your key to understanding and elevating Scrum practices.

Scrum is simple to understand but difficult to master. As a framework, Scrum is particularly challenging as there is no formal education tailored to these roles and no comprehensive set of practices readily available to those interested in applying it. The Scrum Guide 2020 describes its underlying principles only in the broadest strokes–from applying Scrum to complex adaptive problems to embracing self-management–but the Scrum Guide is not at all prescriptive about how Scrum Teams work.

The Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide compiles the most common challenges that every Scrum Team faces and how to remedy them. Stefan Wolpers uses the Scrum Guide as a template to structure the content, thus supporting the junior practitioner’s Scrum discovery journey (categorized by roles, events, artifacts, and commitments) while allowing the more experienced reader to use the book to reference individual problems or situations.

• Addresses Scrum anti-patterns for both novices and experienced practitioners
• Offers actionable insights into why Scrum implementations fall short and how to improve
• Covers real-time course corrections and improvements in Scrum practice

Maximize Scrum success with this quick reference to the most common Scrum anti-patterns and how to resolve them.

“Stefan Wolpers has a remarkable ability to highlight underlying traps and issues for stakeholders, teams, and process. Wolpers documents sources of waste and frustration, an amazing compendium of typical ways progress becomes blocked. Depressing! He doesn’t leave us there though. He also recommends insightful remedies. Uplifting!”

—Diana Larsen, speaker, advisor, author, and co-developer of the Agile Fluency® Model

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Scrum Master Anti-Patterns

Chapter 2 Product Owner Anti-Patterns

Chapter 3 Scrum Developer Anti-Patterns

Chapter 4 Scrum Stakeholder Anti-Patterns

Chapter 5 Sprint Anti-Patterns

Chapter 6 Sprint Planning Anti-Patterns

Chapter 7 Daily Scrum Anti-Patterns

Chapter 8 Sprint Review Anti-Patterns

Chapter 9 Sprint Retrospective Anti-Patterns

Chapter 10 Product Backlog and Refinement Anti-Patterns

Chapter 11 Sprint Backlog Anti-Patterns

Chapter 12 Increment Anti-Patterns

Chapter 13 Product Goal Anti-Patterns

Chapter 14 Sprint Goal Anti-Patterns

Chapter 15 Definition of Done Anti-Patterns

Appendix A: How to Sabotage Scrum Masters and Product Owners at an Organizational Level

Appendix B: Toolbox

About the Author

Stefan Wolpers is a Professional Scrum Trainer at Scrum.org, Agile Coach, and Scrum Master, specializing in guiding agile transformations through practices like Scrum, LeSS, Kanban, Lean Startup, and professional product management. He’s a licensed Agile Fluency™ Team Diagnostic facilitator with a history of senior leadership roles. His agile coaching focuses on scaling product delivery for fast-growing, venture-capital-backed startups as well as transitioning existing teams in established enterprises. Stefan curates the widely-followed “Food for Agile Thought” newsletter, engaging 50,000+ global Agile enthusiasts. He shares insights on Age-of-Product.com, hosts a vibrant Slack community of 18,000+ agile practitioners, and has authored e-books on agile themes, garnering over 100,000 downloads.