I’ve seen cobbled together Scrum teams for years, but I realized just the other day that I’ve never written about them. So, now I will…
What are they?
They are an anti-pattern and are a team in-name-only. That is, there is no collaboration because everyone works on a unique product, application, service, or platform.
I often see this anti-pattern in Ops organizations where the coverall company is adopting Scrum. The leadership team feels compelled to form teams everywhere—out of individuals with very different skill-sets, roles, and application-level responsibilities.
For example, if it’s an IT administration and support group, probably every member of the group has 1-10 applications or platforms that they are individually supporting. With little to no overlap in skills or area ownership across team members.