Practice vocabulary for Agile anti-patterns: cargo cult Scrum, zombie Scrum, fake Agile, and dysfunctional ceremonies.
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A consultant says 'This team is practicing cargo cult Scrum.' What does this phrase mean?
'Cargo cult Scrum' refers to teams that mimic the outward forms of Scrum (standups, sprints, retrospectives) without understanding why they exist — hoping the practices alone will produce results.
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Your Agile coach says 'The standup has become a status report.' Why is this an anti-pattern?
When standups become status reports to a manager, team members lose ownership and focus on impressing the boss rather than coordinating with each other. Scrum standups are for the team to synchronize and identify blockers.
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A team is described as practicing 'zombie Scrum.' What best describes their situation?
Zombie Scrum describes teams that mechanically follow Scrum events but lack engagement, collaboration, and drive to improve. They 'go through the motions' without the agile mindset.
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Someone says 'The sprint planning is a ceremony without substance.' What does 'ceremony without substance' mean in this context?
'Ceremony without substance' means the event is held to satisfy a process requirement but produces no real value — teams may sit through sprint planning without genuinely understanding what they're committing to.
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An executive announces 'We are doing Agile now' but continues to demand fixed scope, fixed dates, and fixed budget. This is often called what?
'Fake Agile' or 'Agile in name only' describes organizations that adopt Agile language and some ceremonies but retain a command-and-control structure, fixed requirements, and no real inspect-and-adapt culture.
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PR Description: 'Just finished implementing the user authentication flow. Added new API endpoints for login and registration. This was a huge effort and took longer than expected due to unexpected complexity in the legacy system integration. Please review.'
During a code review, your teammate says: 'This PR is a classic example of scope creep – it's trying to solve too many things at once.' What does 'scope creep' specifically refer to in the context of Agile development and why is this comment relevant?
'Scope creep' accurately describes an uncontrolled expansion of the project's scope – in this case, attempting to fix multiple authentication problems within a single PR. The key issue isn't just the delay; it's the fact that the original requirements weren't clearly defined and expanded during development, leading to a larger, more complex task than initially planned. This is a common anti-pattern where feature requests are added without proper consideration of impact on schedule or quality.
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During a Slack conversation with another developer, Sarah says: 'I'm worried this pull request is adding too many new features – we're refactoring the database *and* implementing the new reporting module. It feels like we're losing focus.' What does Sarah likely mean when she describes this situation using the term 'feature bloat'?
'Feature bloat' describes a situation where a product or project accumulates too many features that don't contribute significantly to its core purpose. This often leads to confusion for users and makes maintenance more difficult. Sarah's comment highlights the risk of prioritizing quantity over quality and focusing on adding features without considering their strategic importance – a key characteristic of an Agile anti-pattern.
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PR Description: 'Just finished implementing the user authentication flow. Added new API endpoints for login and registration. This was a huge effort and took longer than expected due to unexpected complexity in the legacy system integration. Please review.'
During a code review, your teammate says: 'This PR is a classic example of scope creep – it's trying to solve too many things at once.' What does 'scope creep' specifically refer to in the context of Agile development and why is this comment relevant?
'Scope creep' accurately describes an uncontrolled expansion of the project's scope – in this case, attempting to fix multiple authentication problems within a single PR. The key issue isn't just the delay; it's the fact that the original requirements weren't clearly defined and expanded during development, leading to a larger, more complex task than initially planned. This is a common anti-pattern where feature requests are added without proper consideration of impact on schedule or quality.
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During a Slack conversation with another developer, Sarah says: 'I'm worried this pull request is adding too many new features – we're refactoring the database *and* implementing the new reporting module. It feels like we're losing focus.' What does Sarah likely mean when she describes this situation using the term 'feature bloat'?
'Feature bloat' describes a situation where a product or project accumulates too many features that don't contribute significantly to its core purpose. This often leads to confusion for users and makes maintenance more difficult. Sarah's comment highlights the risk of prioritizing quantity over quality and focusing on adding features without considering their strategic importance – a key characteristic of an Agile anti-pattern.
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PR Description: 'Just finished implementing the user authentication flow. Added new API endpoints for login and registration. This was a huge effort and took longer than expected due to unexpected complexity in the legacy system integration. Please review.'
During a code review, your teammate says: 'This PR is a classic example of scope creep – it's trying to solve too many things at once.' What does 'scope creep' specifically refer to in the context of Agile development and why is this comment relevant?
'Scope creep' accurately describes an uncontrolled expansion of the project's scope – in this case, attempting to fix multiple authentication problems within a single PR. The key issue isn't just the delay; it's the fact that the original requirements weren't clearly defined and expanded during development, leading to a larger, more complex task than initially planned. This is a common anti-pattern where feature requests are added without proper consideration of impact on schedule or quality.
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During a Slack conversation with another developer, Sarah says: 'I'm worried this pull request is adding too many new features – we're refactoring the database *and* implementing the new reporting module. It feels like we're losing focus.' What does Sarah likely mean when she describes this situation using the term 'feature bloat'?
'Feature bloat' describes a situation where a product or project accumulates too many features that don't contribute significantly to its core purpose. This often leads to confusion for users and makes maintenance more difficult. Sarah's comment highlights the risk of prioritizing quantity over quality and focusing on adding features without considering their strategic importance – a key characteristic of an Agile anti-pattern.
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PR Description: 'Just finished implementing the user authentication flow. Added new API endpoints for login and registration. This was a huge effort and took longer than expected due to unexpected complexity in the legacy system integration. Please review.'
During a code review, your teammate says: 'This PR is a classic example of scope creep – it's trying to solve too many things at once.' What does 'scope creep' specifically refer to in the context of Agile development and why is this comment relevant?
'Scope creep' accurately describes an uncontrolled expansion of the project's scope – in this case, attempting to fix multiple authentication problems within a single PR. The key issue isn't just the delay; it's the fact that the original requirements weren't clearly defined and expanded during development, leading to a larger, more complex task than initially planned. This is a common anti-pattern where feature requests are added without proper consideration of impact on schedule or quality.
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During a Slack conversation with another developer, Sarah says: 'I'm worried this pull request is adding too many new features – we're refactoring the database *and* implementing the new reporting module. It feels like we're losing focus.' What does Sarah likely mean when she describes this situation using the term 'feature bloat'?
'Feature bloat' describes a situation where a product or project accumulates too many features that don't contribute significantly to its core purpose. This often leads to confusion for users and makes maintenance more difficult. Sarah's comment highlights the risk of prioritizing quantity over quality and focusing on adding features without considering their strategic importance – a key characteristic of an Agile anti-pattern.
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Code Review Comment: 'This change introduces a significant amount of technical debt. The existing codebase is already complex, and this addition further increases its fragility.' What Agile anti-pattern does this comment most likely highlight?
This comment focuses on the *consequences* of adding complexity – increased fragility. The 'Velocity Anti-Pattern' describes situations where teams overcommit, often ignoring technical debt. Scope creep and feature envy are less directly related to this specific concern about code quality and maintainability.
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Slack Message: 'Mark says: 'I'm seeing a lot of people just pushing small commits every day. It feels like we're not really collaborating or discussing anything before code is merged.' What does Mark likely perceive as an Agile anti-pattern?
Mark's observation about small, frequent commits without discussion points towards a lack of collaboration. This directly contradicts Agile principles of shared understanding and iterative development. While the other options could *contribute* to problems, they aren't the core issue Mark is raising.
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PR Description: 'This PR adds a new microservice for handling user profiles. It's tightly coupled to the existing authentication service and uses synchronous calls. The team spent considerable time debugging integration issues.' What is the primary concern raised in this description regarding Agile practices?
The description explicitly mentions 'tight coupling,' which creates a significant vulnerability. Agile emphasizes loose coupling to promote independent development and reduce the risk of cascading failures when components need to be updated or changed. Over-engineering is possible but less directly highlighted here.
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Standup Update: 'John reports that the team finished implementing the API endpoint for retrieving customer order details. He spent most of his time dealing with legacy database queries and error handling.' What does John's update suggest about their Agile process?
John's statement reveals that he was primarily occupied with addressing technical debt – legacy queries and error handling. This indicates a potential imbalance in priorities, where the team isn't focusing on delivering value or iterating quickly as Agile typically advocates. The other options aren't directly supported by his update.
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Code Review Comment: 'This feature feels a bit rushed. We didn't have enough time to properly test it under different load conditions.' What Agile anti-pattern is this comment most likely criticizing?
The comment directly addresses insufficient testing – a key indicator of the Velocity Anti-Pattern. This pattern occurs when teams consistently overcommit without adequately considering quality and thoroughness, leading to rushed solutions and potential problems down the line.
What will I practice in "Agile Anti-Patterns Vocabulary"?
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