The document discusses agile anti-patterns, or common practices that seem harmless but are actually damaging to agile initiatives. It provides examples of anti-patterns such as treating agile as a silver bullet, believing it is the same as Scrum, taking a religious approach, and failing to limit work-in-progress. The document advocates challenging conventions and recognizing that a one-size-fits-all methodology does not work. It also stresses the importance of business sponsorship and an agile-supportive culture for initiatives to succeed.

1. radtac: consultancy
Agile Anti-Patterns
Darren Wilmshurst ACIB CITP MBCS
@dazzawilmshurst
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/darren-wilmshurst/1/93/89b/

2. © RADTAC 2014
Who am I?

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4. What is Agile?
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5. Agile is not about Cost Cutting
Dilbert ©2014, Universal Uclick © RADTAC 2014

6. What is an Anti-Pattern?
An anti-pattern (or antipattern) is a
common response to a recurring problem
that is usually ineffective and risks being
highly counterproductive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-pattern © RADTAC 2014

7. An Agile Anti-Pattern?
Something that at first blush may seem
harmless but in practise is usually damaging
to an agile initiative.
Its important to be able to identify these
quickly since they can hurt your team and
organisation
© RADTAC 2014

8. Waterfall should never have existed!
I believe in this concept, but the implementation
described above is risky and invites failure. The
problem is illustrated in Figure 4.
“Managing the Development of Large Software Systems” – Winston Royce © RADTAC 2014

9. Agile is not a….!
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10. Agile is not Scrum!
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11. Umbrella, Ella, Ella
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12. Agile is not a Religion
So don’t be a Zealot
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13. One size fits all – really?
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14. Methodology Failure!
“About 50% of agile
programs struggle or fail.
One major cause of this is
simply bad Scrum.”
-- Jeff Sutherland. Scrum Days Berlin,
June 2013
© RADTAC 2014

15. Cargo Cult
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16. Doing Agile, Being Agile
‘Opening minds: Cultural change with the introduction of open-source collaboration methods’
- A. Neus and P. Scherf,
© RADTAC 2014

17. What’s your Culture
“The Reengineering Alternative” - William Schneider © RADTAC 2014

18. Agile Friendly Culture
47%
41% 9%
3%
Culture Survey of Agile [Spayd]. © RADTAC 2014

19. Agile Anomaly
© RADTAC 2014

20. Agile by Stealth
Michael Sahota, An Agile Adoption and Transformation Survival Guide © RADTAC 2014

21. Don’t do waterfall sprints
This is a intra-sprint waterfall
Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4 Sprint 5
Define
Define
Define
Build
Build
Build
Test
Test
Test
This is an inter-sprint waterfall
Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4 Sprint 5
Define Build Test
BuildDefine Test
Define Build Test
D D DB B BT T T
D D DB B BT T T
D D DB B BT T T
These are cross-functional sprints
Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4 Sprint 5
© 2008-2013 Scale Agile Framework, Inc and Leffingwell, LLP © RADTAC 2014

22. Limit WIP
© RADTAC 2014
TEL AVIV IN THE MORNING
TEL AVIV IN THE AFTERNOON

23. Revolution
© RADTAC 2014

24. Absent Product Owner
Four Attributes of the Ideal Pilot Project, Mike Cohn November 16th 2009 © RADTAC 2014

25. My Anti -Patterns
World accordingly to Darren Wilmshurst
Agile is a Silver Bullet
Agile is SCRUM
Agile is a Religion
Doing Agile is being Agile
Create an Agile Anomaly
Do Waterfall Sprints
Don’t limit WIP
Revolution Comrades
One-Size Fits All
Don’t worry about Business Sponsorship
© RADTAC 2014

26. Conclusion
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