Antipatterns library
Below is the list of available antipatterns, grouped by category.
The Black Hole Backlog
The Product Backlog has become so large, disorganized, and outdated that no one trusts it, it is impossible to manage effectively, and it acts as a sinkhole for ideas that never see the light of day.
The Goal-less Sprint
The team starts the Sprint without having defined a clear and coherent Sprint Goal, resulting in a set of unrelated tasks rather than a focused effort towards delivering a valuable Increment.
Mounting technical debt
The team systematically prioritizes short-term delivery speed over code quality and architecture, taking shortcuts that generate problems, rework, and higher future costs.
The "Almost Done" Increment
At the end of the Sprint, many tasks or user stories are almost finished but do not fully meet the Definition of Done (DoD), resulting in an Increment that is not truly "potentially shippable".
Stakeholder Guerrilla Warfare
Stakeholders bypass the Product Owner and go directly to Development Team members to request changes, new features, or report bugs, disrupting priorities and the planned workflow.
The Endless Planning
The Sprint Planning meeting drags on excessively, often exceeding the recommended timebox, due to overly detailed discussions, lack of backlog preparation, or attempting to plan every task meticulously.
The Status Report Daily
The Daily Scrum turns into a session where each member reports their individual status to an authority figure (like the Scrum Master or a boss), instead of being a quick synchronization meeting for the team.
The Demo for the Boss Review
The Sprint Review becomes a formal, one-way event where the team presents only what has worked perfectly, often out of fear of criticism or negative feedback, losing the opportunity for inspection and adaptation.
The Complaining Retrospective
The Sprint Retrospective becomes a recurring session of complaints and laments where problems are identified but no concrete, achievable, and trackable improvement actions are generated.
The Ghost Product Owner
The Product Owner is unavailable to the team, does not actively participate in key Scrum events, or provide quick feedback on work done or questions.
The Scribe Product Owner
The Product Owner acts mainly as an intermediary who transcribes stakeholder requests into the Product Backlog without analyzing them, prioritizing them strategically, or contributing a product vision.
The Scrum Police
The Scrum Master focuses excessively rigidly on the literal adherence to Scrum rules and mechanics, often losing sight of agile principles and the goal of delivering value.
The Team's Secretary Scrum Master
The Scrum Master takes on administrative or management tasks that the Development Team should self-manage, such as updating artifacts, scheduling meetings, or taking notes.
Hero Culture
One or more team members recurrently take on the main workload, solve all crises, and hoard critical knowledge, discouraging collaboration and shared responsibility.
Siloed Team
Team members focus exclusively on tasks within their area of specialization (e.g., backend, frontend, QA) and do not actively collaborate on others' work, creating silos and dependencies.