Implementing Scrum·May 14, 2024·3 min read

Lipstick On A Pig: Avoiding Scrum Anti-Patterns

Scrum Anti-Patterns Seem To Be Everywhere. Explore How To Avoid "Putting Lipstick On A Pig" In Order To Avoid Some Of Them With In This Informative Article.

Don’t Apply “Lipstick On A Pig” When Implementing Scrum

Implementing Scrum in the real world requires work beyond just reading / listening to / watching the Scrum Guide.

On a daily basis (oh, do I know this and am reminded of this every day myself).

This means you have to actually have to Do. The. Work.

What’s “Lipstick On A Pig” When Implementing Scrum?

At it’s core, this means you are trying to Implement Scrum without making any changes to the current way you, your team, or organization does the work.

Huh?

This means that maybe you are still doing the same old same old stuff you used to do before Implementing Scrum and you’ve just put “agile” or “scrum” terms on top of the old things you’ve always done.

“Lipstick On A Pig” could look like:

• Replacing conversations about Product Backlog Items with Jira / Trello tickets and no context
• Renaming your daily status meeting a “Daily Scrum” and calling it good (no actual changes)
• Demonstrating all the work / effort your team has accomplished to your stakeholders without providing actual valuable working software (product increment) at your Sprint Review
• Using the Sprint Retrospective to beat up the team and telling people to “work smarter not harder” kind of crap (is this you?)
• [insert some agile and scrum anti-pattern of your own here]

Oh… the list can get soooooo long here.

You get the picture, right?

Ugh.

That’s “lipstick on a pig” when Implementing Scrum.

Replace “Lipstick” With Real Change When Implementing Scrum

Yep. This means you need to Do. The. Work.

So.

What are some examples of how to actually succeed when Implementing Scrum?

Let’s re-examine the scrum anti-patterns from above and see what you can do differently:

“Doing The Work” instead could look like:

• Have ongoing conversations with the team and your stakeholders to help create context and buy-in (see refinement.mvizdos.com for one of the greatest non-event-events-in-scrum).
• Have a conversation during the Daily Scrum that actually helps the team focus on what’s getting in the way of delivering your Sprint Goal (reminder: as of the 2020 Scrum Guide, there are no more legacy “3 questions”).
• Have a conversation between your Scrum Team and its stakeholders about the progress towards your Product Goal (you have a product goal, right?).
• Have a conversation during your Sprint Retrospective about how to amplify the good you accomplished in the last Sprint that you could continue in your upcoming Sprint.
• [insert some agile and scrum anti-pattern-buster of your own here]

Notice an important word in each of the examples above?

Conversations.

Context.

That’s real world change when Implementing Scrum.

What Next?

Do. The. Work.

Have a conversation with your Scrum Team and check-in with each other about how you can up your game — as a team — by doing the work.

Together.

Yep.

It’s hard to change something that you’ve always done.

That’s why it’s called change (and not insanity).

Pro Tip

No matter where you are on your journey of Implementing Scrum, START today. Yes. Even if you’ve been doing this for a while. Remember, I became a Certified Scrum Master over 20 years ago now (wow, time flies) and still practice this every day with our internal team and clients around the world.

Need some help with this?

I can help with the conversation.

Contact me or connect with me on LinkedIn to discuss this more together.

Also, check out AgileMentoring.com while you are here; it’s a great community of agile practitioners from around the world who are figuring things out together!