Pattern Description The backlog contains committed stories (features, capabilities, epics) for the next N iterations (sprints, program increments, etc.). Issue, Problem, Risk Any sprint (iteration) should have a clear sprint goal plus a set of user stories paying into this sprint goal. This is the commitment we need. When we now think about scaled agile […]

Pattern Description A silo organization introduces SAFe in the IT silo. And gets the proof that SAFe is no good. Issue, Problem, Risk A silo organization starts to implement Agile in one or more silos, instead of breaking the barriers and thinking of the whole organization as one system.  No end-to-end view, starting and ending […]

Pattern Description Scrum Master does (has to do) the one or more of the following: SM plans sprints, including management approval. One-on-one talks including setting personal goals (AKA: KPIs) for the next quarter. Short and mid-term task management („who does what?“). Task tracking, including task oriented timesheets. Commanding the user story implementation. Issue analysis and […]

Pattern Description This anti-pattern could be also seen as „phased agile“: You set up a e.g. three months stage plan for stage 1, stage 2, etc. You expect every stage will deliver at the end of the stage, but the delivery method during the phase is somewhat agile. Sometimes you even see an „Analysis Stage“, […]

Pattern Description You now have hundreds of stories, all copied from each of your team’s backlogs and have no clue what your forthcoming Product Increment (PI) is going to deliver. Your stories somehow have vague headlines, you declare as „features“, but they are rather what they are: headlines of groups of team stories. The team’s […]

Pattern Description Your company follows a very rigid long-running stage-gate process, which takes around two years between first ideation and go-live. You have three to four releases per year. You cannot change anything which already passed a gate. Issue, Problem, Risk The 1%-requirements creep rule is ignored, thus after 24 months more then a quarter […]

Pattern Description You have lot’s of stories converted from an old fashioned requirements specification. You have enough to do for the next years. Your customer is raising the bar and starts to put pressure on your deliveries. Issue, Problem, Risk A rat race is a rat race is a rat race. Nobody knows why he/she […]

Pattern Description Your IT department is doing pretty good in using Agil, but somebody from the C-level forgot to ‚agilize‘ your purchasing department and/or sub-contractor management. Thus the contracts with your vendors did not change since 1980 and may be summarized as: Fixed price contracts, Contractually binding requirements specification, Contractual penalties based on Quality gates […]