Scrum anti-patterns, team performance and responsibility

Abstract

Currently, the most widely used agile method is Scrum. Scrum works on the principle of a self-organised team, and it is in such teams that so-called anti-patterns appear. These represent a bad pattern of behaviour or bad habit, which can have a negative impact on team performance. The aim of this paper is, through the use of several data collection methods in three Scrum teams, to determine which anti-patterns exist within them that impact team performance results and to set the responsibility for these anti-patterns. We establish a set of methods for the analysis of anti-patterns in Scrum teams and their influence on the performance of these teams. The results indicate four critical issues and problems looming. It is somewhat surprising to find that in terms of responsibility, the Scrum Master is not directly to blame for any of these problems, and in fact, cannot influence these problems from its role.