In the described Scrum Team, which symptom indicates poor Scrum implementation?

• A. There are no Sprint Goals and most items in the Sprint Backlog are unrelated
• B. The team has too many Sprint Goals
• C. The Product Owner has no authority
• D. The Scrum Master is overloaded

Answer: (A)

A clear signal of a weak Scrum implementation is when there isn’t a Sprint Goal and the items in the Sprint Backlog don’t align toward a common objective. The Sprint Goal gives the team a single purpose for the sprint and acts as a North Star for how the selected backlog items fit together. Without that shared goal, the Sprint Backlog can become a random collection of work, with no cohesive plan to deliver value in a sprint. That misalignment makes forecasting, collaboration, and stakeholder understanding much harder, and it erodes focus during the sprint.

Having too many Sprint Goals would indicate a different type of problem—ambiguous focus rather than a complete lack of direction. A Product Owner with no authority signals governance and role-trust issues, and an overloaded Scrum Master points to capacity or process strain, but the most fundamental indicator of poor Scrum practice in this context is the absence of a unifying Sprint Goal for the team.