An antipattern is solution applied to a particular problem that is considered harmful or undesirable, but is used on a regular basis. An antipattern can be applied to a process, product design, company policy of an org, etc. A key characteristic of antipatterns is that they are used in situations where other, better, alternatives exist. Antipatterns can include such practices as over-engineering, reinventing the wheel, establishing too many dependencies, overcomplicating the situation and adding more complexity to a situation.

Lean waste is a type of waste that relates to non-value added activities in processes, communication, information sharing, product features etc. Any non-value add activities that a team undertakes, is a lean waste and such waste is detrimental to any organizaiton, as it creates delays in value creation and increases cost. 8 Types of Lean Wastes are: Work-In-Progress, Inventory, Partially Done Work Over Production, Extra Features Extra Processing, Relearning Transportation, Handoffs Delays Task Switching, Motion Defects Unused Talent Also see: Lean Thinking

The Pareto Principle states, for many events, roughly 80% of results (effects) come from 20% of the inputs (causes). Hence also knowns as 80/20 rule. While the actual % would change based on situation and context, it is almost always true that: a small proportion of the efforts (inputs) towards certain areas generate a larger proportion of results (outputs). The Pareto Principle provides a useful framework for understanding complex systems and identifying key areas for focus / improvement. When correctly used by the Scrum Teams, it can help order Product Backlog Items (PBIs) that would yield most value, identify which retrospective improvement idea to pursue among many, optimize resources, and improve overall ROI. Image source: Interaction Design Foundation This 80-20 rule can be applied to many areas such as business, learning, finance, sales, marketing, customer service etc. The Pareto Principle is named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923).

A feature team, is a cross-functional, cross-component team dedicated to building end-to-end customer features one by one. A feature team usually consists of members from all areas of a system, such as: business, development, operations, product, and technology. Building a feature team requires that team members are empowered to work on all the components of the system that avoids depending on other teams. This speeds up the development work and avoids waiting, delays and hand-offs significantly increasing the value throughput. Feature teams will benefit from having Full stack engineers / generalizing specialists in the team. However, it's not expected that every team member knows every skill. Source: Feature Teams Primer by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde

Scrum Values offer overarching guiding-rails to how team members behave, act, work, and collaborate as a team. Scrum offers five Scrum Values: Focus, Openness, Respect, Commitment and Courage. When a Scrum Team and the people they work with embody these Scrum Values, they a build high trust environment.

A framework could be a collection of guidelines, rules and elements that provide a structure and boundary but not the prescription to achieve something. For Example: The game of Chess (a framework) offers: The chess board (8x8 squares) The chess pieces (Material) The rules about how each piece is placed, how each piece moves across the board A chess player gets to decide their strategy, which piece they move and where, how they secure their king and how they use their queen. The game of the Chess doesn't prescribe any of this.

When exposed to volatility and shocks, Fragile things break, Robust things resist it, Antifragile things benefit from it. Antifragile systems thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, risk and uncertainty instead of breaking under their pressure. In his book Antifragile, author Nassim Nicholas Taleb describes Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better. Nassim proposes rules for moving from the fragile toward the antifragile, through reduction of fragility or harnessing antifragility. Antifragility (and fragility) can almost always be detected using a simple test of asymmetry: anything that has more upside than downside from random events (or certain shocks) is antifragile; the reverse is fragile. Lessons to be antifragile: Fragile items break under stress, antifragile items get better from it. In order for a system to be antifragile, most of its parts must be fragile. Antifragile systems work, because they build extra capacity when put under stress.

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) is an iterative problem solving framework developed around 1950s by Edward Deming. PDCA is used to improve processes, products, and services, by improving upon quality, reliability, productivity, and effectiveness. PDCA is an improvement cycle, and is also known as dynamic improvement. Plan: Involves gathering data, defining the issue, and identifying potential solutions. Do: Involves the execution of plans and action steps. Check: Involves reviewing results and analyzing the outcomes. Act: involves taking Action on improvement ideas. The PDCA cycle is repeated until the desired improvement is achieved.

Business agility is the capability to quickly change or adapt to changes in a business. Building Business Agility is an ongoing process and not a one-time event. Business agility can also be referred to as organizational agility, or adaptive business. Business agility is the ability of a company to adjust to changes quickly. In business, agility involves the ability to change one’s strategy, operational model, and operating processes in response to internal and external changes. This changes can be external, such as changing market conditions or government regulations. Internal changes can also have a big impact on business agility, such as disrupting the company culture or stakeholder loyalties, swiftly reacting to customer demands and quickly launching new products. Organizations that have a high level of business agility will be better suited to take advantage of emerging opportunities, that will allow them to grow and overcome competition.

Spike (concept originating from Extreme Programming) may be considered a type of a Product Backlog Item that is usually focused on research, exploration and investivation activity. The purpose of a spike may be to explore the technical feasibility or create a quick proof of concept to gain better understanding about a particular requirement. Since a Spike does not directly deliver stakeholder value, and due to unknown nature of the work involved, a spike should be subjected to a time-box. The knowledge gained during this time-box (effort spent) should be presented at the Sprint Review and based on it the Product Owner may decide whether to puruse this feature / technology further or not. If the Product Owner decides to pursue it further, they may write a fresh Product Backlog Item and add it to the Product Backlog.

User Story Mapping is a holistic visual representation of how all the user stories fit into the overall user experience. A 2-Dimensional story map can help understand the sequence of activities of a system, identify gaps in the product backlog, and plan releases that deliver customer value. The goal is not to create a raodmap, rather, change people’s mindset from gathering and writing detailed requirements to building shared understanding. A sample User Story Map: (Source: Jeff Patton)

The purpose of using any tool in a Scrum implementation is to create transparency. Which tool is used by a team / org does not matter, as long as it's simple and serves the team's purpose. From surveys, the most teams (83%) use MS Excel or Google Sheets. Here is a list of some of the tools used: MS Excel / Google Sheets Jira Trello Digital.ai MS Azure DevOps Rally IBM Rational there are about a million tools out there etc. As long as one knows how to use Excel well, one should be able to use the tool used by their organization. See also: Information Radiators

Timebox is a maximum duration allocated for an activity / event. Scrum Events are Timeboxed to keep everyone focused on the agenda of the event. Timeboxing also reduced risk by limiting the time a team would spend on a particular activity.

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Pareto Principle

Feature Teams

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Framework

Antifragile

PDCA

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Business Agility

Spike

Story Mapping

Continuous Integration

Tools

Timebox