5 Ways to Prevent Scrummerfall

There are many names for dysfunctional Scrum, one of which is "Scrummerfall"—embedding waterfall phases inside a sprint. It’s alive and well in 2020, more than 25 years after Scrum was first introduced. Yet the Scrum Guide says that you should have a definition of done and a potentially shippable increment at the end of each sprint, not keep rolling stories from sprint to sprint to take credit for partially done work. We hear development team members complaining at retrospectives all the time that we do not have enough time to complete all the stories. And team members often work overtime the last week of a sprint to ensure the definition of done is accomplished. Why do they do this? Mary Thorn will give five practical techniques that will inoculate your teams against the Scrummerfall virus. These techniques will inspire behaviors to create a more self-organized, cross-functional team, helping you practice Scrum as it was intended and deliver the goods for your stakeholders.